Magical Lantern Festival 2016 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens

I booked a evening ticket to see the Magical Lantern Festival on Saturday 10th December 2016. After a lot of waiting around town, I got the bus to Westbourne Road in Edgbaston. Was there between 4:50pm and 5:30pm. It was raining on my visit, so I got quite soaked going around the trail of colourful lit up Magical Lanterns. I've not been back since (apart from the dinosaurs / ice age)

The Magical Lantern Festival first came to Birmingham at Christmas 2016 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens on Westbourne Road in Edgbaston. It was on from the 25th November 2016 until the 2nd January 2017. They returned to Birmingham for the Christmas 2017 season at Kings Heath Park (I only saw that in the daylight) and back to the Botanical Gardens a year later at Christmas 2018 (I only saw them from the bus or walking past on the Westbourne Road). I'm not aware of if it's returning for the Christmas 2019 season.

You book your ticket online, and get it on Eventbrite with a QR code (or print it out - but the paper version would get wet in the rain).

My visit on the evening on the 10th December 2016 just after 5pm. But it was raining, but I did manage to get around the trail (my camera got wet).

"Merry Christmas". A welcome from Santa.

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2016 with penguins and a snowman. Also presents.

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Colourful birds and flowers.

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A jug of water and flowers.

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A reindeer.

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The Chinese Pagoda that you would find in the middle of Holloway Circus in Birmingham City Centre.

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A Bug's Life. A mushroom and a giant ant.

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A peacock. I've seen real peacocks here in the daylight hours (in the years after this visit).

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Santa Claus in his sleigh.

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The world famous Bullring bull in Magical Lantern form.

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A Christmas tree Magical Lantern style.

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I think this is supposed to look like the glasshouses of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

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One of the clowns.

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Canopy over the fountain.

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Frog on a lily.

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Green ant from A Bug's Life. Or Antz?

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Mushrooms and flowers with water droplets.

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Pearl in an oyster.

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Reindeer and a snowman near the entrance canopy.

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Exiting back onto Westbourne Road, giant teddy bear and presents.

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I've also got daylight photos from Kings Heath Park from December 2017. I will put some of those in another post soon.

For a similar post on the Jurassic Kingdom and Ice Age: The Lost Kingdom events follow this link to this post: Jurassic Kingdom 2017 and Ice Age: The Lost Kingdom 2019 at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens.

More photos here on my Flickr Magical Lantern Festival including photos from 2016 to 2018.

Photos taken by Elliott Brown.

Follow me on Twitter here ellrbrown.