NC Chinese Lantern Festival closing early due to weather

The festival, which includes more than 20 LED displays, will close at 9 p.m. - an hour earlier than usual, organizers announced. Box office sales will close at 8 p.m. Chinese cultural performances, which include a contortionist, face-changing artist, drummers and plate spinners, will take place at 6:30 p.m and 7:30 p.m.

Any tickets purchased in advance will be honored for remaining festival dates through Jan. 14.

This is the third year the festival has lit up Cary's Booth Amphitheatre. Each lantern is made by hand on silk fabric stretched over steel frames and then lit with hundreds of LED lights. All lanterns were made exclusively for the festival and shipped in from China.

The Floating Dragon, which sits on Symphony Lake, is longer than three school buses and weights 18,000 pounds.

The festival's normal hours are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Tickets are $15 for people ages 18 years and older. Festival-goers age 3 to 17 can get tickets for $10 each, while children ages 2 years and younger are admitted free.