The symphony played as a rainbow of color rained down from the sky. An estimated 20,000 people packed Monroe Street in downtown Grand Rapids for "100,000 Paper Planes and Melodies Over Monroe", urban legend Rob Bliss' entry for the ArtPrize competition. (This is the same guy who did "Chalk Flood" that I diaried earlier this year)
Tough event to shoot as it stretched for blocks and I had to wade through thousands of people - but what a sight to see. It would start with the red planes at one end, followed by the orange, yellow, green, purple and finally blue tossed from the top of buildings in a wave, repeated four times at about five minute intervals. Recycled paper, in case you were wondering, and the kids went nuts trying to collect all the colors for souvenirs. There were containers set up for people to recycle the paper again as well - and when I came back about 1/2 hour after it was over, it was all cleaned up.
Smiles all around. What a great crowd.
ArtPrize itself has been a phenomenal success, you can read the GR Press stories on the event here. Amazing displays of talent from all over the world. I'll have a diary of pictures on it later this week. It runs through Oct. 10th - if you get a chance, come to Grand Rapids and check it out.