July 19, 2019

WaterFire

Sent by Jonathan Stark on July 21st, 2019

In 1994, Providence RI artist Barnaby Evans had a thought:

“What if we put a bunch of campfires in the middle of a river?”

Sounds crazy, right?

By 1997, over 350,000 people had attended WaterFire Providence.

As of 2019, according to the website:

“WaterFire has captured the imagination of over ten million visitors, bringing life to downtown, and revitalizing Rhode Island’s capital city.”

Twenty five years. Ten MILLION visitors. And the part about revitalizing Providence is no exaggeration. The streets are packed, the restaurants are booked solid, there are buskers and mimes and painters and all sorts of other artists doing a brisk business along the banks of the river.

Massive value creation for an entire city, from one “crazy” idea.

What’s your crazy idea?

Yours,

—J

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