In 2021 the Hilton Head Island Lantern Parade lined up at Alder Lane, stepped off at 5:45 p.m. and ended at Coligny Beach Park. It began and finished on the sand. On Saturday, November 14, 2026, the parade again moves north along South Forest Beach. This time it ends at a festival in Lowcountry Celebration Park, the green space behind Coligny that Forest Beach residents can walk to.
The parade has grown from a beach procession into a full evening, and it now starts and ends inside one neighborhood. The 2026 date is also a week earlier than the last two parades, so there is less time to make a lantern.
A Shorter Runway Than Last Year
Over the past two years the parade has been held the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The 2024 edition was on November 23 and the 2025 edition on November 22. This year it falls on November 14, inside the Town's 10th annual Crescendo Celebration of Arts & Culture. Crescendo runs from October 9 through November 22 and has more than 100 events.
The earlier date affects anyone who wants to carry a lantern. The Town's Crescendo announcement and the parade's creator agree on what you need to march: a lantern. You don't register, buy a ticket or join a group. Building one takes an afternoon, and every one of the Coastal Discovery Museum's lantern workshops falls in the first nine days of November.
Where to Build a Lantern Before the 14th
Coastal Discovery Museum has two formats this year, and both are themed around butterflies.
| Session | Date and time | What you make | Cost | Ages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butterflies & More | Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m. to noon | 16-inch round paper lantern | $40 for one kit and one adult | 13 and older |
| Family-Friendly | Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. to noon | 12-inch round lantern | $20 per lantern, plus $5 per adult or child | Elementary age and up, with a registered adult |
| Family-Friendly | Saturday, Nov. 7, 2 to 3:30 p.m. | 12-inch round lantern | $20 per lantern, plus $5 per adult or child | Elementary age and up, with a registered adult |
| Butterflies & More | Monday, Nov. 9, 10 a.m. to noon | 16-inch round paper lantern | $40 for one kit and one adult | 13 and older |
The museum supplies the lantern, the lights and all the craft materials. Only registered participants are allowed in the workshop area, and space is limited. The museum suggests no more than two people per family lantern, though larger groups can share one.
The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina scheduled an all-ages "Illuminated Parasols" workshop for Thursday, October 29, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Preregistration is required, and you should confirm the cost with the Arts Center when you sign up. The workshop is led by the parade's creator, and participants turn an umbrella into a lantern. If you're building at home on your own schedule, the creator's site has a lantern ideas and inspiration page with ideas to start from.
The Krewe Behind the Giant Sea Creatures
The parade started in 2019 as a partnership between the Town of Hilton Head Island and the Krewe of the Grateful Gluttons, an Atlanta group. Artist Chantelle Rytter leads the krewe, which was founded in New Orleans in 1999 as a Mardi Gras krewe and later moved to Atlanta. Her largest event is the Atlanta BeltLine Lantern Parade. According to a 2025 profile in CH2, that parade still draws about 15,000 participants a year.
The big puppets you'll see on the beach are built for this island. Rytter told CH2 that "The natural world at Hilton Head is just so rich." Over the years her creatures have included a loggerhead sea turtle, seahorses and interactive shorebirds, and she builds a new animal each year. In 2025 the new animal was horseshoe crabs. Each puppet takes 20 to 50 hours to build on a frame of willow, bamboo and cane, and she joked to CH2 that they are "mostly made out of time."
Local groups bring their own lanterns too. In 2025, CH2 named Sea Turtle Patrol, Mitchelville, Pockets Full of Sunshine and the Boys and Girls Club among the community groups that made lanterns for the parade.
How the Route Moved Inland
The year-by-year record shows the parade's center of gravity shifting from Coligny Beach Park to the park behind it.
| Year | Date | Finish | What's on record |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | First parade | Not recorded in available coverage | More than 1,800 people, per the Island Packet |
| 2021 | Nov. 13 | Coligny Beach Park | Lineup at Alder Lane at 5 p.m., step-off at 5:45 |
| 2022 | Nov. 12 | Coligny Beach Park | About a mile along the beach |
| 2024 | Nov. 23 | Lowcountry Celebration Park | Step-off from Alder Lane at 5:45 p.m. |
| 2025 | Nov. 22 | Lowcountry Celebration Park | About 1,500 marchers, left the beach at the Tiki Hut |
| 2026 | Nov. 14 | Lowcountry Celebration Park | Starts at Alder Lane and heads north |
The Island Packet's 2021 preview reported that more than 1,800 people turned out for the first parade in 2019. The Island Packet's 2022 coverage described a procession of about a mile, with stingrays, sharks, egrets, alligators and sea turtles held overhead.
The latest change came in 2025, and it is the best guide to how the 2026 finish may work. CH2 reported that marchers left Alder Lane, moved slowly north to the Tiki Hut and then turned off the beach. They crossed South Forest Beach Drive, walked through the beach parking lot and finished in Lowcountry Celebration Park. Earlier accounts described the route after Coligny differently. For 2026, the confirmed plan is the outline the Town and Rytter have both published: Alder Lane, north along South Forest Beach, then Lowcountry Celebration Park.
The Evening, Hour by Hour
Two official sources give different start times. The Town lists a 5:45 p.m. start. Rytter's parade page lists lineup at 4:45 and step-off at 5:30. If you're marching, plan around the earlier time. Final participant details will be posted on the Office of Cultural Affairs' Lantern Parade page.
Here is how the night worked in 2025, as described in CH2's 2025 parade guide, the most recent full schedule on record:
- Food trucks open in the park. In 2025 they ran from 3 to 9 p.m. at Lowcountry Celebration Park, and Island Recreation Association organized the food and drink.
- Marchers gather at Alder Lane Beach Access, 2 Woodward Avenue.
- The parade steps off around sunset. Black Sheep Ensemble, Soda City Band, Atlanta Drum Academy and the US Marine Corps Dirty Boots Brass Band marched among the lanterns in 2025.
- Music starts in the park. Groove Town Assault played from about 5:45 to 8 p.m., and a jumbotron livestreamed the parade for people waiting there.
- The puppet jam begins when the parade reaches the park. The band took an intermission so the lanterns and their handlers could mingle with the crowd.
Picking Your Spot on Your Own Beach
Rytter's page says spectators can watch anywhere along the beach between Alder Lane and Coligny Beach Park. On South Forest Beach that means you can watch from your nearest beach access at sunset and then follow the last lanterns to the park.
If you'd rather stay off the sand, you can skip the beach altogether. In 2025, CH2 recommended Lowcountry Celebration Park for anyone avoiding the beach, since the jumbotron showed the procession before the puppets arrived. The parade was also streamed on the Beaufort County television channel for anyone watching from home.
For marchers, the 2025 participant rules, as posted in One Hilton Head's 2025 event listing, were straightforward. Each marcher needed a lantern. Marchers had to keep pace with the bands, avoid passing or crowding, and keep children with an adult. Bikes, pets, and flaming or flying lanterns were not allowed, and spectators were asked to stay off the dunes. Expect similar rules this year unless the Town posts changes. The parade happens in the dark on uneven sand, so CH2 suggested bringing a flashlight or a fully charged phone.
Parking, If You Have to Drive In
If you live within walking distance, don't drive. Last year's parking list shows how much the event takes over the area around Pope Avenue. In 2025 the overflow lots were the Coligny Beach lot, the former Wild Wing and Aunt Chiladas properties, First Baptist Church, St. Luke's Anglican Church and Providence Presbyterian Church. Breeze buses also shuttled people continuously between the USCB Hilton Head campus at 1 Sand Shark Drive and Lowcountry Celebration Park.
One of those lots now has a permanent public role. The Island Packet reported in July that the Town-owned former Wild Wing Café at 72 Pope Avenue has signs marking its 74 existing spaces as free public parking, and that the building's long-term use is still undecided. The 2026 parking and shuttle plan hasn't been published yet, so check culturehhi.org the week of the parade before you count on any lot.
Coligny Circle Pocket Park also opened in May at 109 Pope Avenue. Its wider multi-use path links Pope Avenue and North Forest Beach Drive, which gives North Forest Beach neighbors a direct walk to the park.
We'll be on South Forest Beach on the 14th with a butterfly lantern from the Coastal Discovery Museum table. If you'd like more Forest Beach event notes like this one, from workshop dates to parade-night parking, Taylor Boatman sends them to our VIP List. Join the VIP List and we'll let you know when the 2026 route and shuttle details are posted.
