Went downtown last night after grilling some killer pork rib chops to check out Waterfire on the Mile. It’s a spin off of Providence, RI’s famous event that has had a big impact on that downtown’s revival, and it was put on here by the same folks. My initial concern with the event was that landscape here would be tougher to frame because it is much larger in scale than Providence and therefore would not have the same visual impact. Providence has a denser downtown that surrounds a very narrow river. Columbus basically turns its back on the wide muddy expanse of the Scioto that runs through downtown. So after reading that the number of fires had been scaled back because organizers fell well short of their $700k goal, I was even more skeptical. While the crowds were indeed impressive and the atmosphere had the makings of a quality event, the number of fires and their impact were rather puny. They were too far apart and too small and they basically just served to illuminate the muddy, trash-strewn water. It’s hard to find romance in that. But the overall effect (from a distance) was not that bad, as this picture shows.
[img_assist|fid=103|thumb=1|alt=and fire in my eyes|caption=waterfire]
There will be three more Waterfire events this year, hopefully they can find the ducats for more flame and maybe add some more theatrics and street performers to the mix to make this thing truly catch on fire.
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