Today we’d like to introduce you to Yusi An.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Yusi. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up going to lantern festivals in China with my family as an annual holiday tradition. Chinese lantern festivals take place during the Spring Festival when families gather together to celebrate the Lunar New Year. They are fun family outings and great opportunities to make memories. After moving to Texas for college, I have visited many Christmas light shows that constantly reminded me of the lantern festivals I went to as a child. The holiday spirit is what a Christmas light show and a lantern festival have in common.
After a visit back in 2014 to my mother’s hometown in China where lantern festivals originated, I came to realize that a city like Houston could be a great place to introduce a lantern festival. People would be naturally acceptive of new things and the diverse communities of the city would be happy to see a festival that takes a unique approach to traditional Christmas light shows. I already had the passion to start a business on my own and was very passionate about making this dream a reality.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a capital intensive and labor intensive project to produce a holiday light show for more than 50 days from Thanksgiving all the way to New Year’s Day in the following year. Lantern making is a traditional folk art so we had to bring close to 100 artists all the way from China to build the massive 10-acre lantern festival. That is just one fraction of the entire project.
As a small company, we manage everything from event production, marketing and logistics. It definitely has not been a smooth road. We always get people asking what we do during our offseason. The answer is, 10 months out of a year is pretty much a stretch to produce an annual holiday festival. I wish I had 24 months!
Year after year Magical Winter Lights gains more following. As a relatively new event to the Houston holiday scene, it is important to us that we create an annual event worthy of becoming Houstonians’ favorite holiday tradition. Last year, we added an exciting new section: The Lone Star State. Houston is Magical Winter Lights’ home so you will see Houston favorites like the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall and “HOUSTON” cutouts for Houstonians to show off their Houston pride!
We are always listening to what the customers have enjoyed and what they might want to see in the following year’s festival. We are proud of updating our attractions annually. People will see different designs every year.
Please tell us about Magical Winter Lights – People Generation.
People Generation is the event production team behind Magical Winter Lights. It works in partnership with its sister company in China to make this festival possible to take place annually. I’m proud of the fact that we have a very lean team. I’m a huge believer in getting things done and making things happen.
We are happy to see that Magical Winter Lights has started to become an annual tradition for many families in three short years. We are very proud to be somewhere families want to make memories when they visit for the holidays.
People of various cultural backgrounds can find something they can relate to in our lantern designs. We are bringing something very unique and creating an inclusive event for Houston’s diverse range of residents.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1000 FM 2004 La Marque, TX 77568
- Website: www.magicalwinterlights.com/
- Phone: 713.496.0556
- Email: info@magicalwinterlights.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/magicalwinterlights/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/magicalwinterlights/
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xiaaO7q3t0&t=2s
Image Credit:
Rachel Ke at merryhouston.com
Magical Winter Lights
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