On the Beltline after Dark

Saturday night Iain and I joined the Lantern Parade on the Beltline's Eastside Trail.  Tom didn't think he could make the walk because of his ankle, and Sarah was getting together with a friend to watch Dr. Who, so it was just Iain and me.  After we all had dinner at Caramba, Tom dropped Iain and I off at Krog and Irwin.  We had thought we might have trouble finding where we were supposed to be, but it turned out it wasn't difficult at all -- we just joined the large group of people carrying (or in some cases, wearing) different forms of illumination.  There were the two giant illuminated figures that led us on the trail.  

There was a man with paper lantern, made to look like a chicken.

There were lanterns made from lampshades, fabric, and plastic milk jugs.  They were illuminated with flashlights, Christmas tree lights, and candles.   They were carried by young adults, by children, by older people like me, and attached to dogs on leashes.  There were people along most of the route, between Irwin Street and Virginia Avenue, watching from windows, standing alongside the trail, looking down from overpasses.  There was applause and cheering for the Seed & Feed Marching Band, along with the occasional performance along the side among the spectators.  Soon after we left Irwin Street, there was a person who periodically fired off what must have been a flamethrower, and farther on the route a performer high above us on a roof of a building was spinning what looked like an LED-illuminated baton.  There were people in new apartments and in some industrial chic repurposed buildings and on patios of resaurants and bars who came out to watch.  A woman in what I thought was a white evening gown -- possibly a wedding dress -- was doubled over in laughter on a side street.  Videos and photos taken in the darkness; maybe some of them came out better than mine did.

The parade ended at Monroe Drive.  I'm sure lots of parade participants went to the Park Tavern, but Iain and I walked home from there.

It was wonderfully, amazingly fun, walking in the dark with paper lanterns along the Beltline trail, nearly continually disoriented as to exactly where we were, but seeing the city in the dark in a whole new way and from a different vantage point.  Like Atlanta Streets Alive, the event got people to walk somewhere they might not have otherwise, and certainly at a time of day they wouldn't otherwise, and after you've done it once, you're much more likely to do it again (although not necessarily at night, unless it's another lantern parade).  

This weekend was also the opening weekend for Art on the Beltline (the lantern parade was the opening event) , and I hope to get out next weekend to see some of the art work.  Last weekend Caroline and I went out Sunday evening to find and see some of the murals from Living Walls.  I told her I felt like I was on a treasure hunt; I bet Art on the Beltline will be the same experience, not quite knowing where you are going or what to expect, and feeling some sense of accomplishment that you found the work, in addition to the enjoyment of seeing it.

Walking home from the parade, Iain was recapping his favorite moments from the evening.  This is the advantage of living in a city, I told him.  City lights, a friendly crowd of people we didn't know, carrying lanterns through the reclaimed ribbon of land that is the Beltline.  People in other parts of the metro area may want more freeways, but I'm glad I live in a city that is turning old railroad corridors into trails, making its places into places where people want to go.