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Music, fireworks, WaterFire for holiday in Providence


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The projo.com blog had this posted for those trying to find out what is happening downcity this weekend:

Music, fireworks, WaterFire for holiday in Providence

PROVIDENCE -- There will be music, a WaterFire and fireworks in the days leading up to the July Fourth holiday, according to a schedule of events released this afternoon by the mayor's office.

On Friday night, Grammy-nominated jazz saxophonist Greg Abate will perform at Waterplace Park at 7:30 p.m. He is considered to be one of the best BeBop alto players in the country, according to the mayor's office.

On Saturday night, a full lighting of WaterFire will begin downtown at sundown.

And on Monday, a series of events are planned. A 12-member orchestra known as Plena Libre will begin playing at Station Park at 6:30 p.m. The Grammy-nominated group specializes in a new and revitalized form of traditional Afro-Rican musical style.

The Rhode Island Philharmonic Pops orchestra will follow at 8 p.m., with fireworks above Station Park scheduled to begin at 10 p.m.

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Are there any festivities the night of the 4th in the Providence area?

I don't think there has been since I lived here. I think it's seen as pointless to try to compete with Bristol and Boston on the 4th.

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went to see the fireworks last night... it was pretty fun, an the echoing echoes were cool (they bounced off the buildings and then back and forth against them all. just think of how much better the echo will be with more buildings. :D

one thing that was neat is that they reflected in the citizens building. if they had the lights off in gtech, they probably would've reflected there a bit as well.

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when did fireworks in the neighborhoods become legal?! i can't believe that in federal hill alone the fireworks have been non stop since thursday night.

been like that here in elmhurst as well... only i think i heard the first ones over a week ago. the fiancee goes "were those gun shots?" then we realized what time of year it was...

they used to be completely illegal in CT... then they lifted that law and you can get huge sets of them in grocery stores and walmarts... some almost as big as the professional ones.

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when did fireworks in the neighborhoods become legal?! i can't believe that in federal hill alone the fireworks have been non stop since thursday night.

I don't think they ever did become legal. I've been hearing them since mid-June.

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been like that here in elmhurst as well... only i think i heard the first ones over a week ago. the fiancee goes "were those gun shots?" then we realized what time of year it was...

they used to be completely illegal in CT... then they lifted that law and you can get huge sets of them in grocery stores and walmarts... some almost as big as the professional ones.

It's hillarious. They intended the law to allow only sparklers like what you hold in your hand, but they defined it loosely. The first guy to realize this may have been the guy who was selling fireworks in the parking lot at Walmart in Norwich when I was still in high school and ran into a lot of confused/angry residents and cops who wanted to close him down. We all had a good laugh at that one.

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It's hillarious. They intended the law to allow only sparklers like what you hold in your hand, but they defined it loosely. The first guy to realize this may have been the guy who was selling fireworks in the parking lot at Walmart in Norwich when I was still in high school and ran into a lot of confused/angry residents and cops who wanted to close him down. We all had a good laugh at that one.

the problem is sparklers are classified in the same class as fireworks, i think it's class C.

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went to see the fireworks last night... it was pretty fun, an the echoing echoes were cool (they bounced off the buildings and then back and forth against them all. just think of how much better the echo will be with more buildings. :D

It was a nice evening. The RI Phil did a nice job with the Pops concert, and the fireworks behind the Capitol were great.

- Garris

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I was pretty impressed with the fireworks Monday night. Both the New Year's and 4th's fireworks have been impressive here in PVD. I was standing by the Amex building and they left all the lights on so I got to see all the renovation going on for Fidelity. Doing a pretty extensive job.

A couple of suggested improvements:

  1. It would be awesome is the entire sky area around the capitol had fireworks going off. It is such a nice backdrop and the mall, Marriot and Citizens frame the Capitol well enough to have fireworks going off all around it. Instead it is just off to the side and seemed like a rather small display compared to what it was.

  2. Keep the philarmonic playing during the fireworks. Dont know if it was a timing thing or not, but they ended less than halfway through the display.

  3. The businesses on the street level of the mall need to stay open a bit later. At 9:40, we all wanted a coffee. Went to Borders and they would not let us in, as they were closing. Went next door to the Cheesecake factory where they were doing a booming business both in the bar/resturant and the takeout bakery counter. Borders = lame.

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I was pretty impressed with the fireworks Monday night. Both the New Year's and 4th's fireworks have been impressive here in PVD. I was standing by the Amex building and they left all the lights on so I got to see all the renovation going on for Fidelity. Doing a pretty extensive job.

A couple of suggested improvements:

  1. It would be awesome is the entire sky area around the capitol had fireworks going off. It is such a nice backdrop and the mall, Marriot and Citizens frame the Capitol well enough to have fireworks going off all around it. Instead it is just off to the side and seemed like a rather small display compared to what it was.

  2. Keep the philarmonic playing during the fireworks. Dont know if it was a timing thing or not, but they ended less than halfway through the display.

  3. The businesses on the street level of the mall need to stay open a bit later. At 9:40, we all wanted a coffee. Went to Borders and they would not let us in, as they were closing. Went next door to the Cheesecake factory where they were doing a booming business both in the bar/resturant and the takeout bakery counter. Borders = lame.

i assumed the mall was open until 11 like they do during waterfire (or did last year at least)... was this not the case?

i was disappointed that the fireworks didn't seem to go higher into the sky. i think they were shooting them from one of the state parking lots (fiancee is an intern for the dept of health and said they weren't allowing anyone to park in the lots on monday, so she took it off). maybe it was that i was lower being in the park and it made them seem low with the statehouse being so tall, i don't know, but they seemed pretty low. other than that, i was impressed, and i loved the echoes bouncing back and forth off the buildings.

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I could see the fireworks in Providence clear as day all the way down North Main Street from the Pawtucket Line.... I'd have to say they were pretty high to be viewed from that distance.

i think it was the illusion being low in the park and having the statehouse standing so tall... some of th lower ones were barely popping up above the trees next to the statehouse.

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A couple of suggested improvements:
  1. The businesses on the street level of the mall need to stay open a bit later. At 9:40, we all wanted a coffee. Went to Borders and they would not let us in, as they were closing. Went next door to the Cheesecake factory where they were doing a booming business both in the bar/resturant and the takeout bakery counter. Borders = lame.

I was surprised there weren't more vendors at Station Park. We went to Station Park but there was still an hour before the fireworks and we didn't bring any chairs or anything to hang out, so we walked up to Prospect Park. There was at least a frozen lemonade truck up at Prospect Park.

We got up to Prospect Park in time to watch the North Providence (?) display. We could also see light from McCoy but it was behind the trees. We were joking that RI is so small we could watch all the fireworks from one place. :lol:

It seems like the city could really cash in on the whole fourth thing more. Have more designated viewing areas around the city, do a WaterFire on the actual evening of the fireworks, integrate with Bristol somehow. The hotels could sell a Fourth package with ferries bringing Providence hotel guests to Bristol...

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I was surprised there weren't more vendors at Station Park. We went to Station Park but there was still an hour before the fireworks and we didn't bring any chairs or anything to hang out, so we walked up to Prospect Park. There was at least a frozen lemonade truck up at Prospect Park.

We got up to Prospect Park in time to watch the North Providence (?) display. We could also see light from McCoy but it was behind the trees. We were joking that RI is so small we could watch all the fireworks from one place. :lol:

It seems like the city could really cash in on the whole fourth thing more. Have more designated viewing areas around the city, do a WaterFire on the actual evening of the fireworks, integrate with Bristol somehow. The hotels could sell a Fourth package with ferries bringing Providence hotel guests to Bristol...

i was surprised they used station park for something. it really needs benches. we just stood on the sidewalk there.

one thing we noticed were lights from other displays flashing behind the financial district. did east prov have their fireworks on the same night? i also saw the flashing from what i assumed was mccoy or north prov. this was all before prov's started (at 10, which seemed like a late start, most seem to start at 9).

it was a nice night though, we had dinner at trinity (after i amazingly found a spot right on empire) and then walked over to station park. i didn't even think to try prospect park. i was very disappointed (and surprised) at the lack of vendors. i was hoping for a del's truck or something. they had the road by bella vista closed to traffic, they could've had vendors there...

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A couple of suggested improvements:
  1. It would be awesome is the entire sky area around the capitol had fireworks going off. It is such a nice backdrop and the mall, Marriot and Citizens frame the Capitol well enough to have fireworks going off all around it. Instead it is just off to the side and seemed like a rather small display compared to what it was.

I mentioned this to my girlfriend as we watched from Station Park. It would have been really cool if the finale had fireworks shooting off of the mall and another building to the right or something. I don't know how safe that is, but it would have been really amazing if fireworks started shooting off from all over. I thought the show was pretty good though, much better than I was expecting.

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I mentioned this to my girlfriend as we watched from Station Park. It would have been really cool if the finale had fireworks shooting off of the mall and another building to the right or something. I don't know how safe that is, but it would have been really amazing if fireworks started shooting off from all over. I thought the show was pretty good though, much better than I was expecting.

i made a comment to my friends that it'd be cool if they shot fireworks out of the statue as it's holding something straight up in the air.

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