Dear Redmoon Theatre,
When you invite the city to a party, you need to be prepared when they show up.
Last night, Redmoon Theatre launched the first annual Great Chicago Fire Festival. The pre-spectacle press materials described it as a theatrical fire showcase taking place on the Chicago River from the State Street Bridge to the Columbus Street Bridge. Weeks ago, I asked the public relations firm repping Redmoon Theatre…
ME: Where is the best location to experience this? Will there be bleachers set up on the waterfront?
THEM: Anywhere on the Chicago River between the State Street bridge and the Columbus Drive bridge will be prime viewing, either from street level or from riverwalk level. No bleacher seating will be erected, it will all be standing viewing.
I knew before I arrived the chance of this burning extravaganza being a mess were high. First, it was free. Second, it was promoted heavily. Third, the promotions were vague about what this was. The advertisements focused on torching buildings on the river from 8pm-9:30pm. The commemoration was to symbolize the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that burned down the city. Even though it sounded like a ridiculous idea, I was intrigued. It appealed to my inner pyro.
Yesterday started out cold, rainy and windy. The event was still to go up or burn up on schedule. The rain went away but it was still very windy. The wind was a major factor in the original Great Chicago Fire spreading and burning for three days. The big gusts yesterday fueled the fear factor of disaster imitating disaster.
Six of my friends and I decided to make a night of it. We had dinner downtown and then followed the growing hordes of people over to the river. We arrived at the State Street Bridge circa 7:50pm. The mob was intense. People were everywhere. And the view of the river was obscured by 5 to 25 people depending on the vantage point. Some folks were dangerously perched on top of bridges and concrete barriers. And this massive crowd was on two levels, street and river walk.
I was with adventurous folks. We always think there is a solution to every problem. We never found it. We circled the entire event on the street level and the river level. The closest we ever got to seeing anything was on the lower level of the Michigan Bridge. I snapped this picture of the house between Michigan and State Street. In our scouring the area, we saw the duplicate house between Michigan and Columbus. We thought we scored big standing on the bridge. It wasn’t a great view but it was a satisfactory view. Our triumphant didn’t last. We were yelled at by event folks to get off the bridge because of traffic. Cridlin, who was celebrating his birthday and had had a recent saki bomb, handled the situation with remarkable calmness.
RED-FACED EVENT WORKER: Get off the bridge!!!!!
CRIDLIN: I’m okay.
RED-FACED EVENT WORKER: Get off the bridge! There’s traffic. You’re going to get hit. Get off the bridge!!
CRIDLIN: I’ll take my chances.
RED-FACED EVENT WORKER: Get off the bridge or I’ll call the police!
CRIDLIN: I’ll wait for them to come.
She was obnoxious and without any visible credentials. Cridlin was brilliant. The police strolled by minutes later so we did keep walking.
We found a less dense area on Lower Wacker. It was still 5 people deep but you could make out the lowering of a burning caldron or kayak towing the caldron. We could easily hear the ceremony. There were a bunch of caldrons. And each was lit by a representative from some facet of the city; two actors from the TV show Chicago Fire, Martha Lavey from Steppenwolf, blah blah. It sounded very “Hunger Games” as the tributes are introduced before they go on their killing spree. The music rumbled in the background adding to the theatrics.
We continued to search for visibility. It eluded us. Even though we were fixated on successfully viewing the event, it really didn’t seem like anything was actually happening anyway. We called it before 9pm and went for a drink.
Last night, Redmoon Theatre launched the first annual Great Chicago Fire Festival. The key word is annual. Will there be a second? And will people come out again for it? I’m not likely to be duped into wasting a second night looking for something to burn down.