re: Providence festival

WaterFire was a nice event. It seems to have been the idea of an artist in 1994, and makes a lot of sense as soon as you take one look at the geography down there. The river winds through Providence, and there’s a fairly nice paved walk along most of it, and yet the setting needs a bit of help– it’s too surrounded by traffic and high-rises to be innately charming.

There were 100 or so pylons in the river stacked with burning wood. At intervals a boat would come by and replenish the wood. No one, not even small children, can resist staring at the hypnotic motions of fire.

There were also imitation Venetian gondolas going up and down the river, either carrying paying passengers, or throwing flowers one-by-one into the dark crowds.

Classical music was playing the whole night as well, though that may have been the special theme of last night’s festival, based on something I saw.

They do this on alternating Saturdays throughout the summer. It seems to work well in drawing thousands of people into a normally fairly deserted part of downtown Providence.