Your Toronto Zoo Lights Up The Night As Glow In The Wild Opens To The Public

More than 2,000 handcrafted illuminated giant lanterns transform your Toronto Zoo in a celebration of wildlife, nature, culture and conservation.

TORONTO, ON – Your Toronto Zoo is officially glowing! The highly anticipated Glow in the Wild is now open to the public, transforming your Toronto Zoo with more than 2,000 handcrafted illuminated giant lanterns inspired by wildlife, nature, cultural storytelling and conservation.

Ahead of the public opening on September, your Toronto Zoo hosted a special VIP Preview Night, offering community leaders, partners, media, creators and other special guests an early opportunity to experience the 1.5-kilometre illuminated journey and celebrate the official launch of Glow in the Wild.
VIP Speakers

Guests were among the first to explore the breathtaking installations, interactive photo opportunities and conservation stories that will illuminate your Toronto Zoo for a limited time from September 3, 2026 through January 3, 2027.

“This is both a celebration of something new, and also an opportunity to reflect on the journey of who we are as an organization” says Dolf DeJong, CEO, Toronto Zoo. “A number of years ago, we asked ourselves a fundamental question: What should your Toronto Zoo of the future be?

That question ultimately helped shape our Strategic Plan and will be instrumental as we enter into consultation to create our long-term Campus Plan. At the heart of both is a commitment to transforming your Toronto Zoo in service of animals and community. Those words are important because transformation for us isn’t simply about building new things. It’s about creating opportunities for people to learn, connect and belong. When we look around your Toronto Zoo today, we can see that transformation taking place.”

Thousands of Years of Tradition, Reimagined at Your Toronto Zoo

Lanterns have been an important part of Chinese culture for centuries, evolving from practical sources of light into enduring symbols associated with celebration, reunion, prosperity and hope. Over generations, lantern festivals have brought communities together through light, colour and artistry, with increasingly elaborate creations transforming traditional craftsmanship into spectacular forms of visual storytelling.

That tradition of craftsmanship is at the heart of Glow in the Wild.

Every lantern featured in the experience has been handmade and hand-painted by skilled artisans from Zigong, China, a city internationally renowned for its lantern-making tradition.

Creating Glow in the Wild was a monumental undertaking. Production in China took approximately 65 days, with 215 artists and craftspeople contributing approximately 120,800 hours to bring the exhibition to life.

The scale of the experience is just as impressive. Glow in the Wild incorporates approximately:

More than 2,000 individual lantern pieces across more than 100 scenes
10,000 light bulbs
25,000 metres of strip lighting
28,400 square metres of silk, which is enough to cover approximately seven acres
4,533 individual packages transported to Toronto in 17 shipping containers
Approximately 500 species of animals and plants represented throughout the experience

Some of the flowers and insects visitors encounter have even been recreated at up to 100 times their natural size, allowing guests to discover details that might otherwise go unnoticed in the natural world.

From polar environments and tropical rainforests to oceans and savannas, the experience uses light and art to celebrate the extraordinary diversity of life on our planet while encouraging guests to consider the importance of protecting it.

Shining a Light on Conservation

While Glow in the Wild celebrates wildlife from around the world, one installation brings the story especially close to home.

The experience here at your Toronto Zoo features a unique Blanding’s Turtle lantern installation, developed in collaboration with an Indigenous artist to bring the story of this important native species to life through lantern art. The installation invites guests to step into the Blanding’s Turtle story through a series of handcrafted illuminated pieces, connecting art and storytelling with your Toronto Zoo’s commitment to wildlife conservation.
Blanding’s Turtles are one of Ontario’s most recognizable native turtle species and an important focus of conservation efforts. Through experiences like this installation, Glow in the Wild creates opportunities for guests to discover the wildlife around them and the role we can all play in protecting species and their habitats.

Throughout the route, hundreds of representations of animals, plants and ecosystems reinforce that message, using vibrant lantern art to celebrate biodiversity and highlight the interconnectedness of life on our planet.

Experience Your Toronto Zoo in a Whole New Light

Presented in partnership with the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, Glow in the Wild combines breathtaking lantern artistry with interactive photo opportunities, conservation storytelling and live cultural performances to create an unforgettable nighttime experience.
Guests can explore the approximately 1.5-kilometre route at their own pace, discovering larger-than-life installations and illuminated environments throughout the journey.

Glow in the Wild is a separately ticketed nighttime experience and does not include access to animals.

The experience runs select evenings from September 3, 2026 through January 3, 2027 and is here for a limited time only.

Tickets are on sale now below: