Tuesday, October 2151?, 2014 | TechNews

Chicago Fire Festival falls flat

Kyle Stanevich
BUSINESS MANAGER

To celebrate the 143rd anniversary of
the Great Chicago Fire, the Redmoon Theatre,
contracted by the City of Chicago, scheduled
the inaugural Great Chicago Fire Festival. The
purpose of the event was to bring together all
the neighborhoods and celebrate the grit and
resilience of Chicago. This event was hyped
quite a bit, but even after tons of money and
planning, the event fell flat.

During the day, there were a few
smaller events including some vendors, food
trucks, and entertainment. However, these

events were not the main part of the celebra-
tion. What most people came for was the burn-
ing of Victorian-style model houses floating
on rafts on the Chicago River. This is when the
problems started.

The crowds that came for the spec-
tacle started lining the river and bridges, but
there was not enough room for everyone to get
a good view. This made traveling along the riv-
er next to impossible, and finding a good van—
tage point even worse. There were some odd
locations eventually taken including the rail-
ings of bridges, in nearby buildings, and even a
few people sitting on top of the Porta—Potties.

The burning of the floating houses,
which was supposed to start at 8 pm. did not

start until after 9 pm. This delay, along with the
chilly weather, was enough to make the crowds
start complaining. Left and right, people were
commenting about how poorly the thing was
running and how it was a waste of time. The
crowds starting thinning.

After many delays and electrical
problems, there were finally some successful
attempts to set the houses on fire. However,
due to the wet weather earlier in the week, the
flames quickly died down, leaving the homes
mostly intact. At this point, most people had
just given up and left. Even though fireworks
were promised afterward, nobody wanted to
wait around in the increasingly colder weather,
especially after standing in a large crowd for

hours.

The one thing that did go well was
the fireworks show. With multiple launch
points along the river, the fireworks were
amazing. It was not a long show, but quite the
spectacle as the lights reflected off the nearby
buildings. Those who were patient enough to
stick around finally got a good show, but it was
not worth waiting in the cold sea of people for
2 hours.

A six year old in the crowd managed
to summarize the entire show in a game of I
spy: “I spy Chicago, I spy something not on
fire.”

Photos by Kyle Starxmrirh