It's been 143 years since the roaring flames of the Great Chicago Fire tore through the city, and now the historic event is serving as the symbolic kindling for an unprecedented civic celebration. The Great Chicago Fire Festival will light up the riverfront Saturday with local performers, celebrity guests and a flashy, floating grand finale of burning sculptures and pyrotechnics. So how did theater company Redmoon, the Chicago Park District and the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events ignite their initial idea for the fest into a citywide occasion? RedEye talked with Redmoon executive artistic director Jim Lasko and director of community arts Fatimah Asghar, as well as Chicago Park District CEO Michael P. Kelly to find out.
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The Great Chicago Fire Festival
Go: Saturday, Oct. 4, Chicago Riverfront from North State Street to North Columbus Drive; 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Grand Spectacle starts at 8 p.m. Free; for more information visit chicagofirefestival.com
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Sparked by a torch
Lasko said the idea for the fest first occurred to him when the city was in the running for the 2016 Summer Olympics in 2008. "It came about as a result of thinking about, 'What should Chicago's opening ceremonies look like?'" Lasko said. "If we were to make an event that was distinctly about Chicago, what would it look like? And then that just led me down this road of thinking about how to create a celebration of Chicago-to celebrate our distinct character, who we are as a city, our neighborhoods."
River revival
The first seeds of a fest died out with the city's Olympic bid, but when Mayor Emanuel took office and launched his riverfront redevelopment plan and pushed the city's Cultural Plan, Lasko returned to the concept. "One of the things that had always been a part of the idea was to have it happen on the river and celebrate the river as a defining feature of Chicago's geography, so it all just clicked back into place," he said.
Getting neighborhoods fired up
In order to get a full picture of the city, the fest's organizers sent out a Request for Proposal to community organizations across all neighborhoods. From there, dozens of community organizations were selected to represent the 15 Chicago neighborhoods that would be celebrated at this year's festival: Albany Park, Austin, Avondale, Bronzeville, Englewood, Humboldt Park, Little Village, North Lawndale, Old Town, Pilsen, Roseland, South Chicago, South Shore, Uptown and Woodlawn. Throughout the summer leading up to the festival, celebrations were held in each neighborhood. "The river [on Saturday] should be lined with all these kids and families from all these parks that Redmoon performed in, and that's good for us because that's about bringing [people] downtown and showcasing what our city has to offer," Kelly said.
Redefining resilience
At the summer neighborhood events, Redmoon invited attendees to snap pictures in a mobile photo booth, developed in partnership with photographer Sandro Miller. Participants were asked to fill in the blanks on a chalkboard that said "I overcome [blank]" and "I celebrate [blank]." The resulting images will be used to decorate the riverfront Saturday. "We threw events that were occasions to celebrate that neighborhood, but also to capture stories and portraits of its residents and to begin a conversation about grit and resilience, because we're not celebrating the tragic events that burned the city down, but celebrating the spirit of resilience that led to us rebuilding our city and making a new and better city as a result," Lasko said.
Fanning different flames
Also present at many summer neighborhood events? Redmoon's 15-foot by 15-foot Cyclone Grill, a bike-powered carousel topped with nine Weber grills and a DJ booth. "What community organizations were most excited about [was] our ability to kind of shock and celebrate with these spectacles and get their participants excited about something that they don't necessarily see in everyday life," Asghar said.
Heating up
As if the impending flames aren't hot enough: "Chicago Fire" actors Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney will, appropriately, act as the festival's grand marshals.
The big blaze
For Lasko, the big finale, in which three Victorian house-like sculptures will be set on fire on the river followed by a fireworks display, is only the beginning for the festival moving forward. "There are a bunch of neighborhood-based festivals that celebrate the neighborhoods in which they happen, there are a few citywide festivals that kind of celebrate certain aspects of our cultural life, [but] I don't think there's a festival that's aimed at celebrating Chicago," he said. "It's audacious, but I want this to be Chicago's Mardi Gras. I want it to be our Running of the Bulls. I want people to feel a sense of pride and ownership over the festival and I want there to be a way, like those two other events, that people feel like they can get involved, that their voice can be a part of it that it's their festival and that the world recognizes it as a distinct celebration of a unique and amazing city and that they want to come to it."
The Great Chicago Fire Festival by the numbers
-22 fire buoys pulled by kayakers
-15 fire cauldrons created by high school students with After School Matters program
-15 designated neighborhoods represented
-75 kayaks pulling prairie grass following the finale
-3 floating platforms holding fire structure