Do you own or manage property, business or residence in downtown Greensboro? If so, we have the contest for you! Every year Festival of Lights holds a window/facade decorating contest. Windows and/or Facades must use lights and must relate to the theme. This year's theme is Hometown Holidays!!
First prize is an advertising package provided by The News & Record with second and third prizes of theatre tickets and restaurant gift certificates.
There are three categories that you can register in Large Window or Facade, Small Window or Non-Profit Window. New this year is the category for non-profit window -- Downtown Greensboro Inc. and the United Arts Council are teaming together to partner non-profits with vacant store fronts. It gives the non-profit an opportunity to showcase their organization while at the same time brightening up some vacant store fronts.
Festival of Lights is a great downtown event -- something for everyone. The merchants are all decked out and many have open houses. Santa is at Hamburger Square Park -- waiting to talk to you. Marshmallows Roasting, an Indie Market to get some cool gifts. Plus over 20 bands are performing along Elm Street. We have some favorite bands who have been with us for years! It wouldn't be Festival of Lights without them. They include:
High Lonesome Strings Bluegrass Association -- a group of bluegrass musicians and fans who get together to celebrate Bluegrass music. If you can't wait until December 4th to hear them...take a listen to this clip on YouTube.
The NCA&T Fellowship Gospel Choir has been performing for years -- they bring a joyful sound to the Festival. Here is a clip from their performance last year.
So, even if you are saying bah-humbug to Santa, if you are wrinkling your nose at roasted marshmallows and you don't want to go into any of the downtown merchants .... you should at least stop by and take a listen to some of the fabulous music that will be offered on December 4th! .
One project that Grassroots Productions Limited works on are the holiday decorations in downtown Greensboro. About 200 6' snowflakes, over 100 Red Bows and Sprays, 60+ strands of rope light and light balls get installed during the month of November.
The snow flakes each have close to 100 light bulbs on them and yes, you guessed it some lucky person gets to plug them in -- check the bulbs and change as necessary!
While the light balls are only hung in the Hamburger Square Area downtown they are a Greensboro tradition starting in the Sunset Hills neighborhood. We liked them so much we had to have them downtown!
So, head down to the hardware store, buy some chicken wire and a strand of lights and you too can have a yard filled with magical balls of light!
Come downtown during Festival of Lights to see all of the lights or drive down any evening during December to enjoy the magic!!
So, in December of 2008 the format of our Festival of Lights event changed. Instead of having a live tree at Hamburger Square, the Community Tree Lighting took place at Center City Park with a beautiful tree that was gifted by the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation.
We wanted to keep Hamburger Square active as a South Elm Street anchor for the musical stroll...so what to do.
Well, we created a Winter Wonderland! It was magical....Santa was there, a story-telling tent hosted by Greenboro Public Library, musical peformances, face painting and Marshmallow Roasting. Plus, it snowed!! (We had a little help, but it was great!)
So what do we add this year to make it bigger and better, well of course more snow and more marshmallows....we ran out last year, and we don't want to run out this year!! Ah, and reindeer!! We're having some trouble finding a petting zoo in the area that has a reindeer....if we were in Wisconsin or Michigan, no problem. North Pole...clearly no problem. Greensboro, NC....problem. So, if you can help...please let us know.
A week or so ago, Sesame Street was honored at the Daytime Emmy Awards. It's strange to think that Sesame Street has been on the air for 40 years now, but even stranger to realize that there was a time that it wasn't. I can't imagine television without that show. I also can't imagine television without Reading Rainbow, and that just got cancelled, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried about that.
But I digress. The reason I bring up Sesame Street is that during the segment in which they honored the show, some of the cast members, both Muppet and human, came out and sang an Emmy-centric version of "The People in Your Neighborhood" and it was about as strange as you'd expect it to be. Gordon sang a line about murderous soap opera villains, and worlds literally collided (go to 4:45):
I remember thinking that the only thing connecting Sesame Street and soap operas is the fact that they're both on TV during the day.
My point (and I do have one) is that, while Grassroots is involved in lots of events and festivals in Greensboro, there are also a lot that we don't help with. There's always something interesting going on in our neighborhood:
In just a few weeks, there's the annual Greek Festival, a three-day celebration that features some of the best food you'll ever eat in your life, not to mention live music and a wide variety of gift items.
On October 4th, be sure to head over to the Greensboro Arboretum for Art in the Arboretum. Sponsored by Greensboro Beautiful, it's a chance to enjoy some amazing fine arts and crafts in a lovely outdoor setting.
The last week of October means one thing: it's time for The Greatest Homecoming on Earth. The whole week will be jam-packed, but make sure you get to the A&T Homecoming Parade. It's quite a show.
And of course, be sure to come down to Center City Park every Wednesday at noon through October for Tunes at Noon, featuring different performers each week. This is just a sampling of all the fun, family-friendly goings-on in town - really, there's always something, and I love that about Greensboro. For a much more comprehensive sense of what's happening in your neighborhood, you can check out GoTriad.com. And be sure to visit our website for more information about Festival of Lights and next year's Fun Fourth Festival.
