Riverfront will ignite with music, dance, poetry, and fiery spectacle

(Above) Three 24 x 48 foot barges, tied together and loaded with sets for Saturday’s Fire Festival Grand Spectacle, made the trip to the main branch of the Chicago River from South Halsted Street on Monday. They are seen here near Wolf Point, waiting for the Franklin Street Bridge to be raised. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

September 30, 2014 – Saturday’s final schedule for the Great Chicago Fire Festival, released this week by Redmoon Theater, offers an eclectic mix of art and arson.

15 Chicago neighborhoods will be represented at a River Bazaar, starting at 3 p.m. between Michigan Avenue and State Street on the south side of the river. Each area will have two kiosks selling food, crafts, and other goods.

On the north side of the river, music and poetry will be performed at Pioneer Court starting at 5:30 p.m., while on the south plaza of AMA Plaza, hip-hop dancers will compete in an “Urban Dance Battle.”

The main event begins at 8 p.m., when Grand Marshals Jesse Spencer and Taylor Kinney (left), stars of the NBC television series Chicago Fire, ignite a cauldron on the DuSable Bridge at Michigan Avenue.

The cauldron will be lowered to watercraft on the river. This will also be happening on the bridges at State Street, Wabash Avenue, and Columbus Drive.

A total of 15 fire cauldrons will be ignited and lowered to the river.

“As live music from the Chicago Children’s Chorus fills the air, a Victoria-era-inspired steamboat motors along the river accompanied by three mini-steamboats,” reads a description from Redmoon Theater. “As they reach each of three moored platforms in the middle of the river, the steamboats signal the primary fire ritual performance to begin.”

Near the bridges at State Street, Wabash Avenue, and Michigan Avenue, houses that sit on three performance platforms will be set on fire. As they burn, their “symbolic cores” will be revealed.

A fireworks display, also set to music, will follow. Then from boats on the river, 15 projection screens will display images that celebrate “the collective identity of Chicago today.”

75 kayaks pulling buoys of prairie grass from each end of the river will finish the show, the grass representing “the renewal of the Chicago River to its pre-industrial natural splendor.”

All events are free and tickets are not required.

Previous story: Fire festival barges in first positions