The Hong Kong Tourism Board plans to hold the inaugural International Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival at Victoria Park from September 17 to 27, 2026. The festival, themed “Reunion”, will centre on “Tree Shadows and Flowing Light”, a walk-in lantern installation inspired by Hong Kong banyan trees.
The event is planned on two scales. Its “World Lantern Avenue” will display more than 3,000 lanterns from 20 countries and regions, while a separate “Hong Kong Lantern Garden” will present more than 400 traditional handmade lanterns.
Visitors will be able to move among one large and three smaller illuminated banyan trees in the main installation. The design includes layered, translucent canopies and exposed roots, allowing visitors to examine the lantern-making details at close range; Star Headline and i-CABLE News report that the structure will be eight metres high.
The banyan display is one of four large Qinhuai lantern installations commissioned from a 33-person production team in Nanjing. The other three are a paired-fish scene, a seven-metre-high moon and lotus display, and a lantern corridor formed from 12 lotus leaves.
The production team told Ming Pao that the banyan was chosen partly because the spaces beneath such trees are associated with neighbourhood gatherings and shared Hong Kong memories. Its stated aim is to bring the traditional craft closer to local audiences through what it called a “two-way cultural dialogue”.
That local reference also shaped the construction. According to Ming Pao’s account of the team’s work, designers used photographs of Hong Kong banyans, repeatedly adjusted three-dimensional models, and fabricated the trunks, roots, aerial roots and canopies in separate layers before assembling them.
The outdoor setting brought its own practical demands. The team reportedly replaced traditional on-site welding with flange-and-bolt assembly, divided the structures into prefabricated components, and used water-resistant translucent fabric, drainage holes and sloped upper surfaces to guide rainwater away.
The displays are scheduled to light up at Victoria Park from September 17 through September 27. The announced arrangements give visitors a window to walk through the banyan installation, see the other Qinhuai displays and visit the Hong Kong Lantern Garden, although the reports describe a festival still to open.