You may associate outdoor light displays with the holiday season, but Four Mile Historic Park is lighting up Denver’s summer nights with Bright Nights, a massive illuminated art display. Created by Tianyu Arts & Culture Inc., the largest Chinese lantern producer in North America, the festival features handmade lanterns and massive, luminous sculptures of art.
Tianyu organizes traditional Chinese lantern festivals as well as specific themed decorations for events across the country, combining the tradition of ancient lantern-making with new creative ideas.
This is the first time a Tianyu festival has been hosted in Colorado and the only place in the Mountain West where you can experience and walk through this one-of-a-kind, interactive exhibit, which stretches across Four Mile’s 12 acres of land.
Four Mile’s sprawling park is the gateway to Denver’s Western heritage, complete with historically accurate replicas, a working farm and Denver’s oldest standing structure, the Four Mile House Museum. The park hosts various events, tours and education programs in an effort to keep the spirit of the Wild West alive. As Four Mile enters its 165th year in 2024, the historic park aims to provide diverse and captivating opportunities for people to come and visit.
There are multiple themes on exhibit at this festival – Ocean Lights, which will feature various aquatic sculptures, a traditional Chinese section, multiple interactive displays and a section dedicated to Four Mile’s Western history, including a covered wagon and farm animals. The themes will change each year.
“We want to make sure that, through this partnership, we honor what Tianyu does and what Four Mile does,” says Four Mile Historic Park’s CEO Jennifer LaGraff. “There will always be a Four Mile section that will grow each year, but we also want to allow Tianyu to display what they do best.”
Bright Nights at Four Mile will return for the next five years, so there will be plenty of time for Tianyu to showcase radiant displays of all kinds.
“Four Mile hasn’t produced anything this large before and we’re so excited for people to see it,” says LaGraff. “The pictures don’t do it justice, you’ve got to come out and see it for yourself.”
Bright Nights runs every Wednesday through Sunday from July 26-October 1. Experience the magic yourself by purchasing tickets here.