ZooLights runs November 20, 2026 to January 3, 2027 at the Oregon Zoo, and the zoo sells private access to it. For a company holiday party, that gives a bookable venue with a published capacity, a gate time and a catering contract.
What the buyout includes
Two packages carry the admission. The full zoo experience is a three-hour booking with admission for 800 and access to the entire zoo. The half experience is also three hours, admits 600, and covers Great Northwest, Pacific Shores, Primate Forest and Elephant Lands.
Both are after-hours rentals. The zoo train, carousel, lawn games and amphitheater are add-on bookings.
The gate opens at 4:30
ZooLights opens nightly at 4:30 p.m., so a three-hour experience that starts at the gate ends at 7:30 p.m. Book dinner inside those three hours or straight after them.
The season carries closures. ZooLights is closed November 24 to 26 and December 25 inside the published run. January 1 and 2 are listed as 21+ Only Nights, the date pair for an adults-only company party. November 13 and 14 are BrewLights, November 15 is a member preview and November 16 is a sensory-friendly night.
Where 800 people sit
Cascade Crest Ballroom is the largest indoor space, at 450 seated or 600 for a reception, and it separates into the Vista and Skyline ballrooms. At the full buyout of 800, the seated plan covers 450 guests and the remaining 350 stand, move through the light route or settle in the lower lobby and patio.
The rest of the campus runs smaller. Wildlife Pavilion holds 350 seated or 500 for a reception, Cascade Terrace 100 or 150, Conservation Hall 90 or 120, Aviary Understory 100 or 150, Discovery Plaza takes 500 for a reception and opens for evening events only.
Catering terms that change the budget
Levy Restaurants is the zoo's exclusive food and beverage provider. The executive chef is Robert Kelley, who joined as sous chef in fall 2023, took the executive role in summer 2024 and was nominated for Levy's Chef of the Year that year.
Four terms set the spend. Every space carries a required food and beverage minimum, and no dollar figure is published per room. Pricing carries a 20-guest minimum, with a $100 service fee on orders under 20 guests. Menu selections are due at least 30 days before the event, and a guaranteed attendance number is due seven business days out, with final charges on the guarantee or the actual count, whichever is greater.
The deposit is 75% of the estimated event price, with the balance at least seven full calendar days out. The deposit is non-refundable in all cases. A cancellation inside four months incurs the minimum plus a percentage of room rental, and one inside seven days incurs the total event cost based on the guaranteed count.
Where admission stops applying
The catering terms split the campus. Guests reaching an event inside Cascade Crest Ballroom, Cascade Grill or Conservation Hall do not need zoo admission to reach the space, and admission is still required for anyone going onto zoo grounds. In every other event space, admission is required for all guests.
That rule sets the layout. A reception in Cascade Crest can skip admissions for guests who stay in the room. Anyone walking the light route needs the admission the package includes, capped at 800 or 600.
What the admissions would cost at the gate
Public ZooLights pricing runs $13 to $35 for adults and $13 to $30 for youth, and prices vary by night through the season. Members take 20% off regularly priced tickets, with no additional discount on value nights.
At those prices the 800 admissions in the full experience represent $10,400 at the bottom of the adult range and $28,000 at the top. The half experience at 600 represents $7,800 to $21,000. Those figures price the included admissions. The zoo quotes the buyout on inquiry.
The room side
The zoo publishes no hotel block, no partner property and no nightly rate for private events. bookMyTeam's Portland directory lists 278 hotels available, group pricing begins at 10 or more rooms per night, and the platform publishes a 15-40% saving against rack rates as a benchmark to hold offers against.
A worked example with the rate as your own input: 80 rooms for two nights at $150 is $24,000, and the published band puts the saving between $3,600 and $9,600. Send the dates and room mix through /rfp/submit to turn the benchmark into offers.
A public ZooLights admission doubles as a TriMet ticket on its own date through January 3, 2027, valid on bus, MAX, WES, LIFT and Portland Streetcar, and not valid on C-TRAN. Sunset Transit Center Park & Ride is free, and MAX runs one stop east to the zoo.
What goes in the inquiry
Ask for the date, full or half experience, seated or reception layout in Cascade Crest, the room's food and beverage minimum, the guarantee date and the audiovisual package.
Price the Snow Globe as an add-on: $300 for a 60-minute session for up to six guests, with hot cocoa, s'mores and fast-pass train tickets.
Two facts belong in the pitch. Most animals are not on view during ZooLights, the zoo states on its event page, so sell the lights and the train. The zoo is cashless: cards and touchless payment only, with free cash-to-card machines inside. Balloons are allowed in Cascade Crest only, and decorations need approval 14 days out.
Submit the venue inquiry through the zoo's own form to get the date held, then take the room request to /rfp/submit in the same week.
