There were 3 of us who went: me, my neighbor Amy, and her friend Susan, who I had met once before. Amy had researched everything and was well-prepared, down to where we would park and what installations we would see. Amy is my kind of woman when it comes to planning! Being BLINK was a light festival, it didn't start til near sundown, so we left at 6pm on Sunday. The festival covered downtown Cincinnati and Covington, KY, which is right across the river, and had over 100 installations throughout. The news and media were saying that it is impossible to see everything in 1 night, so we planned to park in Covington, walk across to Cincinnati and stay by the riverbanks, then head back across and slowly make our way back to the car and see installations in-between. It was odd to me that we left so early, but I was soon going find out why (more on that later).
The parking lot that Amy found turned out to be free, and from there, we were off. The sun was just about setting as we were walking towards Cincinnati, so there weren't any installations that were coming to life yet. I did notice that on practically every street corner there were these pillars with the BLINK logo on them. I thought they were generators, but it turned out I was wrong, but more on that later as well.
We crossed the Roebling bridge at sunset, and I could see that the lights and music were on, but I couldn't get the full effect because it wasn't fully dark yet.
After we got on the Cincinnati side, we walked to the ferris wheel, called the Sky Star. The wheel is always beautiful no matter what time of day it is, but it's always better at night. Even at twilight it was gorgeous.
We then walked up to Great American Ballpark, and by this time, it was getting darker. There was a cool concrete carving on the facade of the ballpark that was part of the festival, and it was really cool how they got so many different kinds of light effects on such a small area. That was my favorite installation so far!
We decided that the ballpark was as far north as we were going, so we turned our attention towards the riverbank. As we came down the hill to the banks, the Roebling Bridge was dancing with lights, and in the foreground was a canoe installation where the lights on them were choreographed with the most beautiful symphony music I had ever heard. We probably spent a good 20 minutes right in that spot! I was starting to get a better grasp as to why BLINK attracted so many people from all over!
After this area, we walked further down the riverbanks, closer to the bridge, and the music and light installments just kept getting better and better! As we walked under the bridge, we saw this huge gumball machine! Imagine a transparent bouncy house, complete with "gumballs" that were just blowing around inside, probably with the aide of a wind machine! It was pretty awesome! Then, just down from that was a huge rainbow display! Seeing this, the gumball machine, and the Sky Star all at once was pretty awesome! We strolled along just taking it all in, including the river and bridge behind us! It was all so pretty, just filling our senses!
When we were ready to move on, our next stop was going to be across the bridge, on the Kentucky side once again! But, we had to make it across the bridge first. Remember earlier in this blog how I thought it was odd that we arrived before it was dark? Well, this is why: being we were walking back to the KY side, we didn't have a problem with wall-to-wall people trying to get to the KY side (security had 1 side of the bridge walking one way, and the other side of the bridge walking the other, much like how you would drive). Walking across the bridge into the OH side WAS wall-to-wall people. I guess a lot of attendees thought that being the festival was a nighttime event, they wouldn't arrive until nighttime. Good thinking on time, Amy!
Anyway, it took us a while to cross the bridge because at every landing of the bridge, we had to look back (to note, my blog is also fittingly called "Always Look Back") at the city and see all the lights! Each landing offered different vantage points, and each one was stunning! I'm glad that the ladies I was with wanted to take it slow, too!
After peeling my focus away from the river, we made our way back to the car, but not without seeing more installments on the KY side of the river! These installments were projected onto facades of buildings. Remember when I was talking about all these pillars that I thought were generators? Turns out they were all used as projectors for this very reason! The facade installments were amazing too! There were blocks upon blocks of light shows on buildings! Imagine art paired with movement! Just spectacular!
As were were walking back to our car, we came across an installment called "Bitland." Bitland was a tunnel filled with video gaming displays, including my favorite, Super Mario Brothers! That was a cool find! Apparently Bitland was featured on the local news as a must-see!
The Bitland installment wrapped up our evening. We got in the car and were shocked that it was already close to 10:30pm! If only BLINK went all night (the installments turned off at 11pm each night)! After all was said and done, BLINK attracted between 1.25 and 1.5 million spectators over the 4-night run, making it the largest event ever in the Greater Cincinnati area! I was so glad to be a part of it, and have the memories and pictures to remember this event by!.
After I was finished editing my pictures from BLINK, I found one that could potentially be a canvas. We have been wanting a 3-piece canvas to hang above our dining room table, agreeing that it has to be of a picture that I take (all of our wall art are canvasses are of pictures that I have taken throughout our travels). We also thought it would be fitting if that 3-piece canvas portrayed Cincinnati in some way. So, we ordered this amazing canvas, and it is due to arrive on October 22nd! We are very excited to see it!
