Waterfire Providence creator interested in producing Waterfire Riverhead

The creator of WaterFire, the popular waterfront art event that’s drawn millions of visitors to Providence, Rhode Island since 1994, wants to bring his event to downtown Riverhead, according to Riverhead officials.

Multimedia artist Barnaby Evans is looking to add Riverhead to the list of cities hosting WaterFire events — including Columbus, Ohio, Kansas City, Missouri, Sharon, Pennsylvania, Singapore, and Rome, Italy, according to Riverhead Business Improvement District board members who attended a meeting with him Wednesday at Dark Horse Restaurant.

Evans described his event to town officials, BID board members, members of the Riverhead Chamber of Commerce and others during a private lunch meeting at Dark Horse and it got a very warm reception, BIDMA president Ray Pickersgill and board member Steve Shauger told the rest of the Riverhead BID board during its regular monthly meeting yesterday at Riverhead Town Hall.

Waterfire features flaming braziers afloat in the water, gondolas, torches, bonfires, live music, dance and art. Evans originated Waterfire Providence as First Fire in 1994 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of First Night Providence. The event has grown steadily ever since and this year celebrated its 20th year. It has since expanded to several cities around the world.

The BID has been interested since last fall in creating an event patterned after the successful WaterFire, which is credited with transforming downtown Providence into an artistic center and tourist attraction. Pickersgill and L.I. Aquarium executive director Bryan DeLuca pitched the idea to the Riverhead Town Board at a work session last December.
Earlier this year, the BID bought a few floating fire pits and one custom-made artisan brazier for a land installation and set them ablaze during the East End Arts’ well-attended JumpsART event in downtown Riverhead this August.

The handful of floating fire pits drew throngs of curious onlookers to the boardwalk during JumpstART, a first-time art event featuring poetry, theater, music and vocal performances, dancing, drumming, yoga, a Native American ceremony, and both indoor and open air art exhibits.

Riverhead’s activities caught the attention of WaterFire creator Evans and he contacted the town to discuss the possibility of staging a WaterFire Riverhead.

“This is going to be a great thing for downtown,” Pickersgill said yesterday.

Evans assured Riverhead officials and business owners that the success of Waterfire isn’t limited to big-city venues, like Providence, Kansas City or Rome, Pickersgill and Shauger said. Evans spoke of his success in Sharon, Pennsylvania, a city of about 17,000 located on the Shenango River on the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.

Waterfire Sharon has held three events each summer since its 2013 debut, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to the Shenango River waterfront in downtown Sharon, a city working to reinvent itself since the decline of the steel industry in the region and the shuttering of the Sharon Steel plant in the 1990s.

Waterfire is “the region’s foremost cultural event,” boasts the City of Sharon website.

“They are really interested in the waterfront and Grangebel Park,” Pickersgill told the BID board.

Evans has made several trips to Riverhead already, Riverhead Community Development Agency director Chris Kempner said in an email invitation to the meeting at Dark Horse.

The events, though free to visitors, are not cheap to produce. The three Waterfire Sharon events produced this year cost $500,000,
WaterFire Sharon board Chairman Bob Wilson told The Sharon Herald.  The pricetag included the one-time expenses such as buying braziers, a sound system and rafts, he noted. It was funded largely through donations and grants, he said.

Those would be the funding sources for Waterfire Riverhead as well, Pickersgill said.

“He [Evans] said there would be no cost to the BID,” Pickersgill said. “And I think it’s going to be a fantastic event for downtown Riverhead.”

Waterfire could take place in Riverhead as soon as next year, Pickersgill said.