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Hello, everyone! I hope that you are enjoying your summer break now that school is out. Here at Bellingrath, we’re happy to have our second year of the Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival finished. Phew! It’s been a good run, but as I’m sure so many of you also feel, the days and weeks and months just seem to pass ever faster and faster, eh?
So, you ask, how did we do this year? Was the event successful? Are we going to do it again in 2027? To these questions, I can say “pretty good” and “yes” and yes!” Our attendance numbers for 2026, compared with the inaugural 2025 year, were down, but we feel that economic and cost-of-living issues are pinching people’s wallets and budget – and we at BGH understand this, too. Despite, however, us having fewer attendees, the reviews (both online and on-site) were nothing short of amazing and praiseworthy for this year’s show. Our partner, Tianyu Arts & Culture, put together an entirely new show for this year, and to my great excitement, they created several signature set pieces based on concepts that I had given them back in 2025 (for which there wasn’t enough time to realize). Thus, we had flowering dogwoods, pitcher plants (complete with bats bobbing in and out of the pitchers, lol), native azaleas, and also our familiar Formosan azaleas. These set pieces were crafted specifically for the Bellingrath show, and we couldn’t be more pleased! We hope you noticed these “local flora” nods when you visited.
Although our attentions are now starting to turn to this year’s Magic Christmas in Lights, we will soon (by late summer) be working on next year’s Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival, believe it or not. If you have any thoughts on specific new set pieces that you would like to see next year, please send us your ideas. You never know what we’ll decide to adopt!
The reasoning behind us hosting a second light show at BGH – with Magic Christmas being the first one, of course – were two-fold: to provide more opportunities for you, our visitors and supporters, to experience our Charmed Spot of the Deep South at a different time of the year, and also to provide crucial operating support that allows us to fulfill our mission and keep the doors open. Public gardens are resource intensive organizations to operate, and given today’s visitor expectations, we know that we can never rest on our laurels “waiting” on you all to just show up. As staff will affirm, I often say that we always need to give visitors at least two reasons to come to BGH. Although I feel that the gardens and home are reason enough, I also know from my career experiences and from my colleagues’ perspectives that our own splendid campus isn’t enough. We need to give you another reason to come – something so compelling that you just can’t wait to see what we have offer. Both Magic Christmas in Lights and the Gulf Coast Chinese Lantern Festival offer this “second reason” level of attractiveness and attention.
In our view, Bellingrath remains as vital today as it was in Mr. Bellingrath’s time, for the societal and spiritual benefits that it brings forth. Public gardens and historic estates aren’t just “pretty places,” ya’ll. They are essential components of the social fabric and regional identity of the communities in which they are located. Although we can never rest fully on past successes, we can celebrate them while also looking forward to the next set of reasons that we are giving you to continue supporting us. Thank you for all you do for Bellingrath Gardens & Home. We cannot exist without you!