How a city keeps falling in love with flames and ripples.
Did artist Barnaby Evans have any idea what he’d created, back in 1994? Could he have known that his New Age-y experiment—of lighting dry logs in elevated braziers—would become a citywide tradition? Did he anticipate the creation of the WaterFire Foundation, WaterFire artist workshops, or the construction of the WaterFire Arts Center, the one of the biggest and most important cultural complexes in Rhode Island?
Whether he did or not, you’re just glad WaterFire is here. This peculiar ritual, which takes place on Saturday nights throughout the warmer months, is like nothing you’ve ever seen. You’re also heartened that it remains so popular, more than three decades after its first edition.
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