The Moonlight Forest at The LA Arboretum
Wow! What an incredible night.
We did not expect the experience that we encountered when we bought tickets to see the Moonlight Forest exhibit at the LA Arboretum last Christmas.
Since Amanda's father was still visiting from the UK, we were trying to find interesting things to do around town. Actually, it was he who found the Moonlight Forest event. Amanda and I were busy working when he mentioned it, so we suggested that he go ahead and book the tickets.
My father-in-Law doesn't really get how difficult it is to get around LA quickly, so he bought tickets for the same evening, about 3 hours later - right when rush hour was in full effect!
We quickly got ready and rushed out the door.
Amanda was in a bit of a mood and was angry driving. I was getting pretty car sick! It didn't help that we had no idea what it was that we were going to see. When we pulled up, it was just getting dark and the doors weren't open yet.
We got a glimpse of some light displays and thought, Oh! That looks cool. We really had no idea at just how big this event was.
There were so many people waiting in line!
The first thing we did when we got there was head to the food court. We had not eaten yet because of the rush, and we were starving! The food is technically at the exit, but we took a short detour and munched down. I don't think we would have lasted the rest of the night without some kind of snack.
I felt like my blood sugar was bottoming out!
Next, it was time to go back and have a look around. Man, was this event impressive! When we arrived, I thought perhaps there were a few things to look at and we'd be done. In fact, I thought we could see most of it from the entrance.
I could not have been more wrong!
It just goes on and on. All I kept thinking about was just how much work must have gone into putting all of this together.
Once it got completely dark, the show became nothing short of magical. You should have heard the kids! Everyone was just gingerly walking around gazing at all the colorful lights and designs.
They really went to town. The variety of characters was pretty vast.
The pieces appear to be sculpted, thick wires that are welded together and wrapped with a cloth skin. The lights are dispersed throughout the sculptures very skillfully to create the wonderful illusion of life.
Some of the pieces even animated a bit which was a nice touch.
The arboretum is divided up into themed areas that we began to notice as we moved along. There was everything from birds to bears to fish to weird looking emoji thingies.
I actually took over 100 photos here.
I realize that this post has quite a lot of images. I just wanted to put it into context just how much there was to see at this event. In fact, I'm pretty sure we'll be getting tickets and coming back to the late 2020 event. I hope they get new stuff in!
I would really like to know how many people it took to put all of these pieces of art together! It is quite extraordinary. It couldn't have been done very quickly. I get a feeling that they're going to have to replace some pieces for next year though.
Apparently, this was the first time that this show has been done. I did notice that some of the ink was running on many of the display pieces. Sadly, it had rained a very uncharacteristic amount here in Los Angeles over the previous month. Probably because of the fires! Seems like ancient history now, with the current corona virus situation.
I don't think that the organizers anticipated the rain, since it pretty much never rains in Southern California. It must have been a huge frustration for them because I think they had already set the entire show up and it just started thrusting down buckets. Luckily it was dry the night we went!
The different themes as you walk through the park really kept things interesting and changing. Sometimes it felt like you were traveling through time, other times you were entering into a complete fastasy world.
I was left wondering how they are going to dismantle the pieces after the show. I don't know how they can do it in a way that they will be reusable next year. Perhaps they'll make all new displays.
Another thing that happened during the event was a stage show. Unfortunately, I didn't get any footage of it.
I wanted to get some pictures, but a massive crowd formed around the stage, so it was a bit difficult. No matter! We just went ahead and enjoyed the show.
I don't think it really would have been worth photographing, at least not with my phone camera. It was mostly stunts and it was quite dark outside.
By the time we finished watching the acrobats on stage, we realized that we had actually seen everything that there was to see and decided it was time to call it a night.
We began to head for the exit and took one last look at all of the magnificent creations. I don't know if they will do it again next year, but if they do, I would highly recommend it!
I will leave you with a picture of Amanda and her dad. It turned out to be a really great time even though we started off a bit grumpy and rushed. I can't wait for the next one. Perhaps it will be even bigger and better!