I saw a Facebook ad for Color and Light Festival taking place in Asbury Park. The link featured didn't have much information beyond the free show was taking place at 7:00 pm on March 21 and 22 and will be projected on a building on the boardwalk in Asbury Park (where the shops are). It was a rain or shine event. There were links to apply to be a vendor. The projections would be on a continuous loop until about 11 pm. Bring your friends!
The information was that scant.
Don had off on a rare Saturday night, and the weather wasn't bad. I'd say it was nice because the temperatures were in the 50s and it was clear, but it was so windy it felt much colder.
We got to Ocean Grove (the town south of Asbury Park with free parking) and looked for dinner. In the past we have struck out trying to find a place that fits that Goldilocks spot between cheap street food and expensive tablecloth restaurant. Day's Ice Cream is closed for the season. A Google search shows they are closed until May, it would be nice if when they closed their doors for the winter they left a note in the window. We stopped by midweek in September and thought they would be open on weekends. I'm glad they are planning to return in a few weeks.
We walked back to the grassy area by the Paramount Theater/Convention Hall for the light show. By this point it was 7:54 -- 54 minutes into a show we had no idea how long it was supposed to last. It ended around 8:14, and said it would start up again in 16 minutes. It even had a countdown.
Whew!
We moved to a central space to watch the second viewing. At the end, they announced they would keep looping until 10:30 pm. The show was about 30 minutes long. We came in at the nine minute mark.
It was a nice crowd. Lots of families. Some people brought well-behaved dogs. It was not at all crowded. An evening in the summer, or even further into spring, would have filled the lawn and provided more income to the vendors. The wind kept up from buying anything to eat. When we walked past at 6:15 everyone was still setting up. By the time the light show started, it was too dark to appreciate the vendors.
After the show we got to talking to Adam. Adam was wearing a LUMA t-shirt and seemed really into it. He brought his wife and stroller-aged child. He held the child up during the show. They were both mesmerized. I couldn't really see his wife from my angle, but I suspect she was humoring him. They traveled from Binghamton, NY (about three hours away) and were making a weekend out of it. They were staying in the hotel next door to the event and asked for a room overlooking the festival. The hotel tried, but the view of the festival grounds was not what he had in mind.
LUMA is a volunteer-based company in Binghamton, NY. Every September they have a mini-festival featuring about ten artists showing off their light shows on ten different buildings. You have to travel around town to catch all the displays. Some projection mapped displays are five minutes long, others are 15. By contrast, this had about ten artists displaying their shows on the same building with festival goers staying in the same place. We were glad we parked about a mile away in Ocean Grove (maybe two miles away?) because we could see cars driving around closer to the event trying to find parking, which is already relatively limited in Asbury Park.
Adam has been involved with them for about a decade. The head people decided this year to start taking the show on the road and move out of Binghamton. Asbury Park was chosen as their first site. I wonder where they will go next.
I signed up for their email list. Hopefully I'll learn about more events. For now, September 6-7 in Binghamton is marked on my calendar. From there it is an easy road trip to Montreal.
UPDATE: I read a press release that said 12,000 people came over the two days.
Here are some pictures from the event.
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