The Autumn Glow Festival to light up the night at Mabee Farm

Magic in the night

SCHENECTADY — A phoenix rises, burning in the dark; a 100-foot-long dragon peers out at the spectators; a row of small ducks sparkles like stars in the dusky evening.

At the Mabee Farm Historic Site, the Autumn Glow Lantern Festival will light up the night from Thursdays to Sundays, starting on Thursday, Sept. 5, and running through Sunday, Nov. 3, paying homage to the community, the changing season, and the rich history that surrounds it.

“I think a lot of people would agree with me that autumn is really the upstate New York season,” said Mary Zawacki, Executive Director of the Schenectady County Historical Society. “When you think of a quintessential fall day or evening, you’re thinking of upstate New York: pumpkins, apples, cozy foliage. We have it all at Mabee Farm. These lanterns are going to illuminate that.”

Adding to the event’s uniqueness is its duration. “This is going to be going on the whole season,” said Zawacki, referring to it as an ‘eight-week celebration of fall.’ “It’s a celebration of the entire season. That’s what makes it unique.”

“I think Mabee is a great location for this for us because we’re always looking for places where our art can be displayed in a bucolic setting,” said Travis Noyes, Chief Marketing Officer at Kaleido Arts and Entertainment.

The festival, produced by Kaleido Arts and Entertainment, has drawn over 500,000 attendees to its lantern festivals across the country. “What we also love about this event that we’re bringing to people is that it’s incredibly family-friendly. We find our audiences are multi-

generational,” said Noyes.

With the lanterns as the ‘stars of the show,’ the event is designed around them to complement their glow. There will be live entertainment, along with seasonal food and beverages from local vendors. On select nights, Mabee Farm will stay open late for visitors, offering crafts for children and opportunities to explore the farm’s education center and exhibitions.

“What we try to do is create a culture where we have different music and food, and people can gather, enjoy themselves, and celebrate,” continued Noyes. “The community-building piece of this is important to us. Lantern festivals are traditionally meant to promote reconciliation, peace, forgiveness, and a sense of community. We want to foster that wherever we go.”

The lanterns for the show are carefully designed by six different artisans, including their chief artist, Wang Yu. Each artisan plays an essential role in the creation of the lanterns, from the designer to the framing engineer, architect, paper skinner, electrician, and painter.

“These lanterns are their own visual works of art. What we pride ourselves on is that each one is carefully designed by multiple different artists, so it’s like walking through a lighted sculpture field,” said Noyes.

The origins of lantern festivals can be traced back hundreds of years to the Han Dynasty. Lantern festivals flourished

during the Tang Dynasty, with Zigong becoming renowned as the Lantern Town of the South Kingdom. The bustling market contains the artisans who meticulously shape and craft the lanterns, drawing on traditional Chinese motifs and modern innovations.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of lanterns in Chinese culture,” said Zawacki. “It goes back to 200 B.C.E. This is a big part of their culture, paying homage to the full moon, celebrating the changing of seasons, and the cycles of nature. It’s a unique cultural experience. We are a historical society, so for us, it’s exciting to be able to highlight that at our site, something that we’ve never really been able to talk about as well as display in such a luminous way.”

Bringing people together, Zawacki noted, is at the heart of all of the Historical Society’s events, especially this one. “I love that it is continuing this 2,000-year-old tradition on a completely different continent, but the idea is still the same: to bring people together, to celebrate, and to be there for the changing season,” she added.

To purchase tickets, visit: https://www.autumnglowfestival.com.

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