6-Oct-14 – No one is denying that the Great Chicago Fire Festival had a shaky start on Saturday.

An electrical issue with the ignition system rendered the main fire effects quiet and safe and less of the infernos they were supposed to be.

“While the houses didn’t burn as we hoped, we still lit up the river in celebration of Chicago’s grit, greatness, and renewal,” wrote Redmoon on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Technicians were seen on Sunday inspecting the wiring on all three barges. Fire cauldrons had been gathered east of Columbus Drive. The barges will remain on the main branch of the river until the next scheduled bridge lift on Wednesday.

The theater company estimates 30,000 people braved the cold to see at least part of the festival. For the Grand Spectacle, they lined both sides of the river and each bridge from State Street west to Columbus Drive.

The spectacle may have been modest but area photographers came back with these great images…

Albert Bartkus captured this image of the steamship (actually a pontoon boat in costume) as it passed the marina at Marina City on Saturday night.

“If only 1871 had been so anti-climatic,” mused Lynn Becker. The structures on the three barges, he reports, “remained dispiritedly intact” on Sunday. The steamship is seen here the night before passing one of the structures.

The structure east of Michigan Avenue burned sporadically but is seen here, in this image by Steven Dahlman, holding its own at least for the moment.

A Dance Crew Battle warms up the crowd at AMA Plaza east of Marina City before the Grand Spectacle in this image for Redmoon by Anne Ryan.

Kenneth Schadt spied the guts of one of the structures. “Remember when they said that when the houses burned down they would reveal inspirational messages, like ‘Stay in school,’ ‘Don’t do drugs,’ ‘Vote for Rahm?’ Looks like here is part of one of those messages that now will never be known. I think I see EWAL. Probably RENEWAL.”