Messages of encouragement, personal goals and silly doodles glowed in the Trinity River on Oct. 16 during the Fort Worth Water Lantern Festival.
Dallas resident Nayetzi Palma, 25, her boyfriend Alejandro Guevara, 25, and her longtime friend, Alex Rodriguez, 21, attended the festival to reconnect after a difficult year. Palma decorated her lantern in honor of her deceased relatives.
People collect water lantern-making kits at the festival Oct. 16. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
People line up at food trucks. About 10 vendors offered food ranging from corn dogs to Italian food. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Edina Wilson, 21, and Patricia Neufville, 20, attend the Fort Worth Water Lantern Festival on Oct. 16. Wilson attends the University of Texas at Arlington and Neufville attends Tarrant County College. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
People decorate their water lanterns at the festival at the Panther Island Pavilion. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A designated section of the beach was reserved for launching the water lanterns. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A scavenger hunt asked people to complete tasks ranging from playing a game of cornhole to giving someone you don’t know a compliment. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Water lanterns are ready to launch at the festival. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A water lantern ready to launch offers prayers. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
James Conzelman, 28, and Valerie Betancourt, 28, hold their water lanterns at the festival. Betancourt was visiting Fort Worth from Florida on Saturday. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A child plays cornhole at the festival. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Kaden Jackson, 15, and Aspen Overmeyer, 15, play cornhole at the water lantern festival. Jackson and Overmeyer attended the festival with their families. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A boy pushes his lantern into the river with a stick. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Two festival-goers watch water lanterns floating on the river A designated launching spot allowed gatherers to release their lanterns in the river. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Water lanterns float on the river at the Fort Worth Water Lantern Festival on Oct. 16. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A boy releases his lantern into the river. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A boy pushes his lantern into the river. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
A festival-goer records people releasing their lanterns into the river. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
Lanterns were picked up and disposed of after the festival. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report) 
People walk toward the river to release their water lanterns. Hundreds of people attended the festival. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
“We’ve dealt with the loss of family, and this is a good way for us to remember them, and, also, to just connect with each other,” Palma said. “I miss my little sisters and grandma so much, and this is a good way for me to remember them.”
Rodriguez lost his grandmother and then his grandfather not too long after. The group of friends planned to get together for the event nearly a month ago. They were among the hundreds who gathered at the Panther Island Pavilion to decorate and release their lanterns into a small section of the Trinity River.
Further inland, high school couple Kaden Jackson, 15, and Aspen Overmeyer, 15, laughed as they played a game of cornhole against each other. The teens had been completing a scavenger hunt before their game.
Closer to the water, Valerie Betancourt, 28, and her boyfriend, James Conzelman, 28, heard about the festival through Instagram. Betancourt visited Fort Worth from Tampa Bay for the weekend.
Betancourt planned ahead and wrote positive affirmations on her lantern, and Conzelman wrote his personal goals on his.
“I tried to do mine all positive things that I’m looking forward to or what I want in my life,” she said. ‘I’m trying to let go of all the negativity.”
Cristian ArguetaSoto is the community engagement journalist at the Fort Worth Report. Contact him by email or via Twitter. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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