CINCINNATI — And with the BLINK of an eye, it’s over.
After four nights of art, music, food, drink and a whole lot of lights, the third iteration of Cincinnati’s BLINK art and light festival has come to a close. Between Thursday, Oct 13 and Sunday, Oct 16, hundreds of thousands of spectators traversed miles of city blocks between downtown and Covington, Ky.
But even as early as Monday morning, the festival’s executive director, Justin Brookhart, is already looking ahead to the next BLINK.
“The team’s definitely a bit weary after the long weekend, but we’re filled with a lot of energy after the success of everything,” he said.
What You Need To Know
- A day after the end of BLINK, organizers are already looking ahead to 2024
- Organizers don't have an official attendance, but mentioned "full streets" all weekend long
- There were some complaints about distances and some technical glitches, but the event's executive director was happy over all
- Business owners feel the event allowed Cincinnati to shine and hopefully owned doors to new customers
Brookhart hasn’t received an official attendance estimate, but “the streets were full” all weekend. Just as important, he said, is that people “showed up in the right way.” He hasn’t heard any major complaints about the weekend of events.
“It was a really great weekend in general,” he said.
To make BLINK happen, Brookhart worked with an organizing team of representatives from the City of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Police Department, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, AGAR and ArtWorks to bring BLINK to life.
They had only 10-and-a-half months to recruit artists, plan events and execute a new vision for the beloved arts showcase. Typically, BLINK planning takes about two years, but the pandemic cut that timetable in half.
To add to the challenge, not only was this Brookhart’s first time directing BLINK, but it was his first time attending it as well. He moved from Texas in January to take the newly created position.
It wasn’t until Thursday night when Brookhart got to see the kickoff parade go past Fountain Square, and he got to walk around and see people respond to the drone show over the Ohio River, that the reality of BLINK started to set in for him.
“Up until just a few days ago, BLINK was just sort of this thing that lived in my head for the past few months,” Brookhart said.
“Getting to experience it while also thinking about all the work that went into making it possible, it’s just incredible,” he added. “Knowing all the hard work that went into making this event happen, getting to experience for myself, getting to take it all in, it really helped me understand just why people are so thrilled and delighted by (BLINK).”
‘Something for everyone’
Brookhart was “pleasantly surprised” by the number of families that spent full evenings all weekend long down in Over-the-Rhine, the Central Business District and Covington.
He described sensing “so much joy’’ and “a purse response to art” as children engaged with the interactive sculptures and experienced mural projections, such as the “Toy Heritage” piece on Court Street featuring classic toys like Star Wars characters and a Care Bear.
That mural is a favorite of Layne Bartosz, 41, who traveled about 90 minutes from Lexington, Ky. on Sunday to take part in BLINK for the first time. Her mother and friends had been to it in previous years and she wanted to see if it’d live up to the “Instagram hype.”
While she especially liked the animated murals and other installations that had music, Bartosz confessed that she “wanted more” from BLINK due to what she’d heard and seen on social media. She didn’t want to be “too judgy” since she only had one night and couldn’t make it to all 100-plus sites.
“I definitely wish I would have gone more than one night so that I could’ve seen everything,” Bartosz said. “I feel like I missed a lot.”
About 20 residents of Maple Knoll Village — a senior living community in Springdale, Ohio — ventured downtown to view the mixture of murals, light displays and performances. After walking more than 8,000 steps, the group ended their night at The Banks to catch a choreographed drone show over the Ohio River.
“Our trip to BLINK was phenomenal,” said Debbie Lawrence, 73, a Maple Knoll resident. “I loved all the innovative art installations and the drone show was out of this world.”
Throughout the weekend, some unsatisfied BLINK-goers went to social media to complain that installations were too spread out and how it differed from previous years, especially the 2019 version. The festival space was split into five zones this year, spanning 30 blocks between the northernmost point of Over-the-Rhine to the business district in Covington — roughly 3.5 miles.
But Brookhart noted that spacing was by design. The vision for BLINK, he said, was for guests to experience it over several nights.
Through the large event footprint, BLINK organizers wanted to create an experience that offered “something for everyone,” Brookhart said.
The Banks Zone and the area around Washington Park, for instance, featured more family friendly installations such as “Fences,” an interactive light installation featuring a custom 72-foot long, and 7-foot high LED display.
The areas around Findlay Market and Court Street in the Downtown Zone were a little more for the grown-ups, with food and beverage options, animated murals and a silent disco.
Glowing opportunity for local businesses
BLINK’s organizers added more food and beverage booths and food trucks around the city. That included the Asianati Night Market on Court, which was packed all weekend long.
Brookhart said the goal was to ensure there were enough food and beverage options to cater to an influx of thousands of people into an area in a short period.
They also added performance stages with live music in several corners of downtown Cincinnati and Covington.
“We wanted to add those hospitality areas and those places where people can stop, take a minute to listen to a band, grab a bite to eat,” Brookhart said.
Scott Brown, a bartender at Madonna’s Bar and Grill on Seventh Street, expected to be slammed during BLINK. The late-night hangout featured a more limited menu than usual all weekend to accommodate a predicted rush in customers.
“We thought it would be busier, but it was a very good four days for us,” he said.
BLINK was a great coming out party for Uncle Leo’s, a new bar that opened just in time for the festival. It’s about a block from Findlay Market on Race Street.
“The crowds were awesome each night,” said Leroy Ansley, the bar’s co-owner. He also worked as a bartender all weekend.
“Things went great across the board,” he added. “From a newly opened business perspective, it was great exposure to get our name out there to hundreds of people that normally wouldn’t have been down there this weekend.”
There were big expectations coming into BLINK. Organizers believed numbers would be like BLINK in 2019, which attracted about 1.3 million people, leading to an economic impact of nearly $87 million.
Brookhart doesn’t yet have official attendance, but to him, it felt like a “massive turnout.”
As of Monday, Brookhart had heard nothing directly from any local businesses or restaurants about BLINK. He plans to spend time over the next few weeks and months measuring the impact of the events.
Pete Blackshaw, CEO of Cintrifuse, a local startup incubator, feels the light and art show have already done its job. He described BLINK as “our own South by Southwest” with its Instagram-worthy photo-ops and heavy emphasis on tech and innovation.
He believed the festival shined a bright light on greater Cincinnati as an innovation hub focused on the future.
“Competition is fierce for both talent and capital,” he said. “BLINK sends a loud, enthusiastic message to the world that Cincinnati is not only open for business but also aiming to be a global leader in immersive experiences and digital technology.”
All that glitters isn’t gold
Overall, Brookhart believes that BLINK was a success. However, he acknowledges that there were issues throughout the festival.
There were some technical glitches, such as mural animations not working some nights. The popular “Toy Heritage” mural, for instance, wasn’t turned on at all on Friday night. On Sunday, a drone fell out of formation and into the river.
The additional pop-up food and beverage booths scattered led to many people walking throughout the urban core with open beverage containers, even outside designated outdoor refreshment areas (DORA) or permitted locations.
“We worked hand-in-hand with all the officials that we need to ensure that we’re complying with all rules here,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll dive into a bit more over the next couple of days, but I haven’t heard of anything getting too out of hand or any major issues.”
There were no major incidents reported throughout the weekend in terms of traffic emergencies or crime throughout the BLINK footprint.
What’s next for BLINK?
The Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation (3CDC) handles programming for Fountain Square, Washington Park, Court Street Plaza and Ziegler Park. All four locations featured a variety of activations during BLINK.
3CDC spokesperson Joe Rudemiller said “there are challenges with any event this size,” but noted a lot of “goodwill and kindness” shown by everyone who visited the civic spaces managed by 3CDC this weekend.
“There was a positive energy throughout the urban core all weekend,” he added.
Rudemiller described BLINK as a “tremendous undertaking” that requires considerable collaboration and coordination. He feels it’s worth it, though.
“If the organizations that put on the event choose to do so in the future, 3CDC would be honored to once again partner with those groups and support them in any way possible,” he said.
While the show is over, the work is not. The BLINK Team is still doing breakdown of some setups and equipment they have throughout parks, alleys and streets throughout the urban core.
They’re also working to make sure the artists in town for the festival get home safely and are feeling “good and supported” after a long weekend.
“Then it’s really diving in with myself and the rest of the partner team to help make the event possible to kind of debrief on things that went well, things we’d like to improve upon in the future,” he said.
After a few days, and perhaps a little time off, Brookhart and his team will start figuring out what they want to do for 2024.
“It’s absolutely our intention to be back in two years,” he said.