Alleged lantern festival 'scam' arrives in Canberra

The Water Lantern Festival, slated for Lake Burley Griffin on Saturday, 15 March, promises visitors the “beauty of thousands of lanterns and lights reflecting upon the water on an emotional and unforgettable night”.

For $38.75, a ticket buyer would get “access to a variety of food trucks, one floating lantern kit, a marker for personalizing your lantern, a deck of playing cards, conversation cards for sharing moments with friends and family, and entry into the scavenger hunt giveaway”.

A $95.27 “date-night special” added “one park blanket to share”.

The festival website said it had more than 200 cities included in its 2025 world tour, mainly in the US and Australia. Prior to Canberra, it’s meant to be in Austin, Texas, on 8 February.

But to the owner of an Adelaide company associated with a previous Water Lantern Festival event, this sounds scarily familiar.

“It’s a whole scam,” said the company owner, who wished to remain anonymous, told Region.

They explained how they were approached by organisers of a lantern festival late last year, asking if they would host an event at their venue.

“They paid us a 50 per cent deposit for the venue hire, and the local council received a phone call asking if we had the registration, but that was it,” the owner said.

At the time, Lantern Festival Australia – as the company was called – also sold tickets online to events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

But as the day approached, they struggled to find “anyone on the ground who was actually contactable”.

“We were meant to invoice them the remaining 50 per cent for the venue hire, but I had some concerns, and we put some pressure on them, and we didn’t get answers, so they lost their deposit,” the owner said.

“We had people turn up on the day it was meant to happen who hadn’t been told it was cancelled.”

Of the other Lantern Festival Australia events, they are aware of one going ahead at Dreamworld, but even then, “when the lanterns rocked up, they weren’t up to Australian standards, with batteries in them that could fall out”.

Another one, to be held at a rugby club on the Swan River in Western Australia, was threatened with littering fines when the local council heard about it “because they’d never been approached for permission”.

“All us venues, we’re all talking to each other going, ‘are these guys full of s*** or what?'”

Many other companies affected by the Lantern Festival Australia reportedly flagged the festival with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) but were told “they can’t do anything until people actually get scammed”.

“It all appears legit, but as far as I know, no one has got their money back.”

Earlier that year, in May 2024, Seven News reported that consumer protection authorities across Australia were “on alert” over Lantern Festival Australia, with “customers concerned it is a scam due to a lack of communication from organisers”.

Around the same time, another lantern festival in the UK prompted a trading standards investigation after it began selling tickets to events in London, Birmingham and Glasgow before announcing the exact locations.

Many of these were later postponed with little warning, although it’s understood a couple of the events did go ahead.

“As soon as I heard the news [of Canberra’s festival], I thought, ‘they’re back at it again’, just under a different name,” the Australian venue owner told Region.

“Even our site was selling tickets under two different names.”

As it is, Canberra’s event has been knocked on the head by the National Capital Authority (NCA) for “lack of information”.

Similar to those in the UK, it turned out Water Lantern Festival had been selling tickets without the NCA’s approval to even run the event. According to an event listing on the festival’s Facebook page, as many as 200 people may have bought tickets already.

The festival also flouted Federal law by using the Commonwealth Coat of Arms on its website without permission and naming the NCA as an “official partner”.

“The NCA has instructed Water Lantern Festival to immediately remove this from their website and wishes to clarify that the NCA is not a partner of this privately arranged event,” the NCA said in a statement on Tuesday (28 January).

Initially, the NCA said it was “in the process of assessing the application” but in an update on Wednesday (29 January) said approval was denied.

“The NCA has written to the organiser of the proposed Water Lantern Festival to confirm that the NCA will not provide approval for the event given the lack of information provided by the organiser,” a statement read.

The date of 15 March has since been removed from Water Lantern Festival’s website, but there’s no word on when those who did buy tickets will be reimbursed.

Included in the “release waiver” people must agree to when purchasing a ticket is the statement,” I understand that my entry fee is non-refundable under any circumstances”.

This is followed in all-caps by “I UNDERSTAND THERE ARE NO REFUNDS unless I purchase the optional ticket protection”.

Access Canberra, which jointly enforces Australian Consumer Law with the ACCC, was contacted for comment. Water Lantern Festival and Lantern Festival Australia were also contacted for comment.