New, Massive Holiday Light Show Coming to Pittsburgh Area
The display will feature millions of LED lights, some blinking to the rhythm of music.
A holiday light show three miles long is coming to the Big Butler Fairgrounds this year.
Shadrack's Christmas Wonderland is bringing millions of LED lights, blinking in rhythm to music, beginning the Friday before Thanksgiving, KDKA-TV reports. Shadrack's displays are very popular in the south. When a member of the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau discovered the light show during a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, he decided to invite company representatives to Butler for a visit.
"We showed them the fairgrounds. We took them through the community, and showed them all the people that were here, and they thought, this would be a lot of fun,” Bureau President Jack Cohen told the TV station. “The show’s going to have so many different places to look at and things to see that you want to go slow, so you can see the whole thing.”
The Shadrack company covers all of the expenses, from lighting to concessions, but expects to easily recoup its investment. It predicts 100,000 visitors during the show, which will run from Nov. 20 through January 3.
––Richard Cook
photo via flickr
#FreeParking: Holiday special
As it has done for in the past several years, the Pittsburgh Parking Authority will waive fees during the Christmas shopping season at publicly owned garages and lots in hopes of spurring business for city merchants.
Free parking will be available at 11 authority-owned garages downtown and in Shadyside and Oakland on the Friday after Thanksgiving and Saturdays Nov. 21 through Dec. 19, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports.
The Parking Authority Board is also asking City Council to approve free parking in all neighborhood lots and at street meters on Nov. 28, which is designated Small Business Saturday.
“It's kind of tradition, and it's a nice amenity for business owners and consumers,” Parking Authority Board chair Cathy Qureshi told the Trib.
Indeed.
––RC
#HBO: Denzel Washington bringing August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” to small screen
Pittsburgh playwright, Pittsburgh plays, national spotlight.
Denzel Washington announced earlier this month a revival of the August Wilson “Century Cycle,” to be featured on HBO, in a one-play-per-year lineup, according to deadline.com. Washington will also be directing, producing, and starring in a film adaptation of “Fences” a Century Cycle favorite. Viola Davis, recent Tony winner for “How to Get Away With Murder,” will also star.
The “Century Cycle,” Wilson’s collection of 10 plays– one for each decade of the twentieth century– centered around the comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in each time period. Most are set in the Hill District of Pittsburgh where Wilson grew up. The cycle was completed in 2005 soon before Wilson’s death.
“Fences,” after premiering on Broadway in 1987, won Wilson a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony award.
Washington and Davis are no strangers to Wilson’s work. The two starred in “Fences” on Broadway in 2010. Now, they are bringing Rose and Troy to the big screen.
Wilson’s work is still alive in Pittsburgh today through the dedication of Wilson’s friend and protege, Todd Kreidler and the August Wilson Center in Downtown Pittsburgh.
––Lauralei Kraski
