Madhurya Manohar & Paula Garcia
By Paula Garcia and Madhurya Manohar
December 13th, 2013
Boston, Mass- On November 23, Faneuil Hall kicked off the Boston holiday season with its annual Blink! Light and Sound Extravaganza, showcasing a variety of performers to a thousand-strong crowd who gathered to see the tallest tree in the Northeast light up on opening day.
Blink! is currently in its second year of running. Created in 2012 by a co-partnership of Faneuil Hall Marketplace’s Merchants Association and the Mayor´s Holiday Special, the event aims to get people into the holiday mood while encouraging them to enjoy all the things that Faneuil Hall Marketplace has to offer.
“The launch of this new tradition is a true celebration of the best the City has to offer,” said Mayor Menino in a 2012 press release that announced last year´s launch of the Blink! event. “Blink! combines all the unique elements and characteristics that bring Boston to life during the holiday season.”
Menino established the Mayor's Holiday Program ten years ago to bring free or low-cost festivities to the residents of Boston throughout the holiday season.
Blink! involves a light and sound show that uses over 350,000 LED lights that move to the music of the Holiday Pops, Boston´s Symphony Orchestra holiday group. The event is celebrated eleven times daily, six weeks a year and grew out of Faneuil Hall Marketplace´s 30- year- old tradition of lighting the first Christmas tree in Boston to headline the city's holiday season.
“It really puts people in a festive mood,” said Edward Hurley, the Events and Marketing Director at Faneuil Hall Marketplace. “It´s a little early since it is happening right before Thanksgiving but it kind of just kick starts the holiday season.”
Blink! runs from November 27 to January 5 and features more than just lights and music. Blink! allows children to visit Santa Claus from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily at Santa´s Cabin in the South Market at Faneuil Hall. The event also endorses the New England Patriots’ charity Toy Drive.
According to Hurley, Blink! impacts the community in various ways by being family-friendly, charitable and involving local performers in the event.
“We wanted something for everyone,” said Hurley.
On opening day, performances ranged from local street performers to Grammy- Award winning artists. Representing the many street performers at Faneuil Hall was Medford, Mass. native, Michael Maloney who performed a collection of Christmas songs in the early afternoon. Paula Cole, a Rockport, Mass. Native who won Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards in 1997, was one of the showstoppers leading up to the tree lighting ceremony. Local collegiate a capella groups, Berklee´s Pitched-Slapped and Tufts SQ!, also belted out popular tunes.
Almost everyday, performances by local groups can be seen around Faneuil Hall Marketplace prior to the start of the different Blink! shows that begin at 4:30 p.m for several half-hour intervals.
“I am here to see Blink! and also some entertainment,” said Bob Giannino of Peabody , Mass. “I came last year only for the tree lighting and the Blink! event, which was wonderful!”
Some of the audience members, like Giannino, are veterans of the Blink! event but not all spectators were as familiar with it. Lyn Freicht, a tourist from New Brunswick, Canada, was pleasantly surprised by the show.
“We thoroughly enjoyed the light show and everything down here on our visit,” said Freicht as she took photos of the Faneuil Hall Christmas tree and waited to see the second show on the evening of December 7.
Each night during the six-week show, Blink! brings the many people visiting Faneuil Hall to a stop as the count down begins over the speakers and thousands of lights around Faneuil Hall Market start to dance and “blink” to the sounds of the Holiday Pops’ Christmas repertoire.
¨We just happened to be walking by, ¨ said Rukshana Rooma, a Boston resident who was enjoying the evening with family and friends, ¨we saw the lights and decided to try and catch the show at 5.”
This year´s Blink! Tree Lighting ceremony and launch is estimated to have drawn between 40, 000 to 50,000 people, over 10,000 more people than the year when it was first launched. The ceremony was televised by WBZ-TV, an affiliate station of CBS Boston. Mayor Menino was the guest of honor at the ceremony and pulled the lever as per tradition to light up the tree.
¨We are already starting to plan for next year, ¨ said Hurley, “We are looking to make it even bigger and better for 2014.”