Words cannot describe how incredible the experience was. It is one of those events that you just have to be there to witness it in person. My friend and I drove out to Nevada for the weekend. We spent some time in Las Vegas, which you can see the photos from my Instagram. I do have enough photos from my time in Vegas that I might do a post about it another time.
The actual site of Rise is about 45 minutes out from Las Vegas. For the amount of people that attended the event, the arrival parking was very well-managed, however, exiting the venue was a different story. We got there around 5:30pm and we waited in line for over an hour to get a photo in front of the Rise sign, which thinking back I probably would've skipped. There's live music being performed through the entire night, but I think they could've had better bands.
We got our lanterns very quickly as everything was assigned to different sections. Once we were settled into our spot, we started writing down our wishes and dreams on our lanterns with the markers that were given to us in the package. The first launch was at 8pm, and it was truly one of the most magical things I've ever witnessed. It was such a surreal sight and awe inspiring. I have to say the lanterns were not easy to light and release. We almost killed a few people by releasing the lanterns too early.
The festival ended with an amazing firework display and then it was a bit of a nightmare getting out of the venue. Some people were stuck in the parking lot trying to get out for over an hour. I think they are aware of the situation and will improve on that next year.
If you are even remotely thinking about doing this, please do yourself a favor, and just do it! You won't regret it. I am definitely going to do it again next year.
