for an up close look at the incredible illuminations.

(light music) - [Jamie] As the sun sets in West Michigan, most of the John Ball Zoo animals call it a night, and that's when the grounds transform into an after-hours world of culture, community, and connection.

(melodious music) - The zoo is always looking for new ways to get people to come to the zoo and enjoy the zoo and while they're here, learn something about conservation and all the work that we do to protect our animals that we have in our care and their natural habitats and hopefully feel inspired when they go home.

So we're really looking at a way to utilize the zoo when we weren't normally open, so we knew we wanted to do a nighttime event.

- [Jamie] The gates open and guests wander into a world of wonder as zoo grounds light up with these stunning glowing displays.

Giant butterflies and flowers illuminate the path.

Nearly everything you encounter feels alive.

- It was a really great fit to bring Tianyu Arts and Culture, which is our lantern festival partner inn.

They custom design all of these lanterns and build them into our site.

It's really custom-made and special for us at the zoo here, and it's a really great way to engage people to get them to come during a time that they normally wouldn't come to the zoo and experience the zoo in a whole new light.

Literally.

- [Jamie] When we arrived, the sun was still setting, but the scenes were still stunning.

It gave us time to get an up close look at the artwork.

Even with a little daylight left as we walked along with the crowds, the sunlight grew fainter and the colors became even more incredible, with people from all walks of life soaking in the experience.

- My favorite part of this event is that it's really something for all ages.

I see so many families coming in, bringing their kids, thinking their kids are gonna have a great time, but then I see the adults acting like kids again and really letting loose and having fun, which is really fun to see.

And I have senior groups that come in and I have college kids, I have first dates.

It's really something for everybody and I think people are pleasantly surprised at how much they can play with when they're here and hopefully it provides a little bit of escape for people and maybe they can tap into their inner child a little bit.

- [Jamie] This one mile pathway is a one of a kind event and the only place to see these custom handcrafted works of art in Michigan.

- [Darcy] We have new themes, we have lots of mythical creatures, we always have the Chinese culture section.

You can find your zodiac and your animal counterpart and learn all about the Chinese culture.

We also have our insect section.

We have a jungle section this year.

So it's great that it changes up every single year.

- [Jamie] This incredible display does not happen overnight.

It takes months of meticulous planning and countless hands working together to create.

Each unique piece is crafted by hand and placed with purpose.

- Setup takes about six to eight weeks.

We start by loading in probably 12 to 15 semi-trailers full of lanterns.

And then from there we map everything out.

Before that happens, we take months and months of planning with everybody in the zoo, making sure we check with animal care teams to make sure all of the animals are unaffected by where we put things and make sure that the route flows well for guests.

And once the lanterns are actually on site, we unload all of them from the semis and then from there the team starts loading them into the zoo.

We make sure that we have everything in place before they start doing that so they know exactly where each one is going.

And then they start to build these beautiful works of art and bring all of these lanterns in and it happens so fast.

- [Jamie] From Asian tradition to Michigan's great outdoors.

There are nods to even some small, but also very important members of nature.

- We actually had a custom lantern built for us that is a Poweshiek Skipperling, which is a species of rare butterfly that the zoo is actively working to restore back to it's natural habitat.

- [Jamie] The displays are carefully crafted into the natural landscape.

New this year, a bat cave that's carved into the zoo's unique location.

- We're built on the side of a hill and we've got lots of cool natural landscapes and really feels like you're not in the city.

It feels like you're out in nature walking these winding paths.

So I love that they built that into some of our really cool unique features of the zoo.

- [Jamie] While this year is full of hundreds of new lanterns, some crowd favorites made their way back into the experience.

- If you came back year one or year two, year three is completely new.

It's a brand new experience.

There's a couple lanterns that are back by popular demand like our angel wings, the photo ops, and some of the light up swings and the playground.

But for the most part, these are all brand new.

- [Jamie] From the glowing lanterns to the sparkling lights, a swirling disco ball, interactive dance display and nightly performances inspired by Asian culture, it's enough to leave your head spinning.

And the animals, turns out they're pretty interested too.

- They're kind of curious about what's going on when they see 'em in place, and it's always good to be changing up what they see in their natural habitats and it really acts as enrichment and gets their brain kind of working and thinking, and maybe there's new smells in the area.

So it's actually a really great way for them to kind of see something new and have something different introduced into their environment.

- [Jamie] A festival of art, a lesson in conservation, and a reminder of what's possible when people truly work to light up the world.

- You can enjoy these beautiful lanterns, but then hopefully it kind of brings it all around and you can learn about the really meaningful work that we do at the zoo every day.

And then the hope is that you'll wanna come back to the zoo during the day, see our animal friends, and then hopefully take some of those good habits and bring them home with you and wanna learn more about what you can do at home to help wildlife and wild places.

(upbeat music)