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[Jul. 9th, 2009|03:53 pm] |
HIGH-TECH 'FIREFLIES' FLY IN WOODS AND MEADOW
By Chris Costanzo
Last weekend an unusually large and impressive event took place in Bethel, yet most townspeople knew nothing about it.
It was a three-day festival put on by the Firefly Arts Collective, an organization in Massachusetts dedicated to creativity and self-expression.
Firefly sets up arts-and-music gatherings in what they call "temporary community settings". The revenues provided from tickets sales pay not only the costs of Firefly festivals, but an excess is used to provide grant funding for artists and performers. The organization is
non-profit.
The first inkling that something was afoot came last Friday evening and Saturday morning when over 460 people showed up on private land on the lower part of Christian Hill Road. They parked their cars neatly in a meadow and disappeared into the distant fields and woods. Nobody emerged, even briefly, until Sunday when they all went home.
Minimum Disruption
In order to have a minimum impact on the communities they visit, Firefly’s rules for participation are very precise. Admissions is strictly limited to ticket holders, and tickets must be purchased in advance. Once at the site, attendees must stay there. If anyone leaves for any reason, he or she cannot be re-admitted. Every effort is made to ensure that no displays or activities are discernable from the road.
The Firefly organizers have been doing this for several years now and have it down to a science, with a meticulous attention to detail and great logistical know-how. First they scout the area for an appropriate site, perform visual checks for privacy as well as noise checks from minimum intrusiveness. They then negotiate with the property owner for the rental of the land and get the requisite permissions from town authorities.
Then they prepare the site, lay out the boundaries of the activities, and advertise the event throughout the Firefly community. We learned that all tickets were sold within minutes after being announced on the Internet.
There was much speculation in Bethel as to what was happening. The Herald got special permission from the Firefly board of directors to attend, and got there just in time on Saturday evening to witness the culmination of the festival.
A Stunning Display
What we found was awesome.
Everywhere there were lights of all colors and types – fluorescent, liquid crystal, incandescent, and laser. Lights were in the fields and deep into the woods. Many attendees were dressed n colorful and whimsical costumes, often themselves decorated with lights.
It was a fairy land. Aside from the enchanting light-displays on the meadows, the distant lights in the woods lured us onto an inviting although very dark trail with countless twists and turns where we found surprise after surprise.
Here was a mobile mock up of a galaxy, in various shades of color, slowly changing position. Over there was an illuminated maypole.
Up the trail a bit in the darkness one would find illuminated domes, chandeliers hanging from branches**, and fascinating mechanical apparatuses, such as a pedal-powered photon projector. We saw glowing shrines, meditation areas, relaxation lounges, steam baths, and places to hang out. There were many sound-and-light displays along the way, and even an outdoor senior center with comfortable chairs, and a shuffleboard deck.
All along the path one could see the faint clusters of lights from the various exhibits. Through the trees they seemed like distant cities, and there were secondary trails that led to them.
We noted a powerful three-dimensional aspect to the lighting. For example, there was a display of countless glowing pastel-shaded strips hanging from tree branches, fading off into the distance, giving an illusion of great depth and producing an irresistible temptation to follow the lights deeper and deeper into the woods. In various places we saw lasers that projected faint moving lights onto the upper portion of the trees.
Logistics, Organization
The organizers obviously knew what they were doing. They seemed to anticipate everything – such as the need for temporary facilities, information stations, communications centers, and roving safety and security personnel linked by walkie-talkies.
We mingled and talked with many of the attendees, most of whom were young professionals. We found a large number of electrical and audio engineers, sound technicians, scientists and researchers, lab assistants, architects, artists and entertainers. Everybody was sociable and friendly, and seemed to be having a wholesome good time.
The climax of the festivities on Saturday night featured performances by acrobatic aerialists against a background of ever-changing colors, displays by fire spinners whirling their flames in hypnotizing patterns. It ended with the burning of a huge mock-up of a firefly beneath an impressive display of fireworks.
On Sunday afternoon everything was dismantled and taken away with the same super-efficient unobtrusiveness with which it had been set up.
The property owner told the Herald that everything was removed in just a few hours, and is land was left in pristine condition.
**That was me!!! |
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