First Look: The 2013 Chinese Lantern Festival, in Photos

Last night they flipped the breaker, turning on this year's bigger, brighter and more brilliant Chinese Lantern Festival for a private media preview. It's changed a lot since we last saw it: there are 17 new scenes, making 24 total, and the overall layout and groupings are more orderly. It...

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Last night they flipped the breaker, turning on this year’s bigger, brighter and more brilliant Chinese Lantern Festival for a private media preview.

It’s changed a lot since we last saw it: there are 17 new scenes, making 24 total, and the overall layout and groupings are more orderly. It feels calmer, somehow — even with the addition of two screaming, slow-dancing dinosaurs. You’ll find heightened interactivity on this year’s visits, thanks to a 300 foot-long, water-spitting Imperial Dragon Boat and a stroll-through Flamingo Lagoon.

It’s stunning, and we get to keep it until January 5, 2014. The Chinese Lantern Festival opens with the State Fair of Texas on Friday, September 27.