Concerned Citizens

I thought I’d get a to take a breather before San Antonio kicks into its summer of festivals. I mean, sure we celebrate Cinco de Mayo here in San Antonio. But after eleven days of Fiesta, it’s really anticlimactic and pales to something as big as Fiesta. However, that little rainstorm we had back in March pushed one of our other big celebrations to May, this weekend in fact. So, for the first time I’m going to experience something all my friends have been enjoying for several years – Luminaria. In fact, not only will I be seeing it for the first time, I’ll be a part of a team from the Social Media Club of San Antonio helping NowcastSA live stream the fun and festivities from Hemisfair Park.

Let me explain something first. I haven’t ditched Luminaria over the past few years because I didn’t want to go. In fact, I’ve always wanted to be a part of it and enjoy the great expressions of art and music by our local artists. The problem was that it always fell during SXSW Interactive, the geeky side of SXSW. When I weigh the two SXSW Interactive benefits me more professionally and there’s a lot of creativity exhibited by it, as well. So you can see why I end up in the geekfest every year.

That all changed this year when we had our weekend of rain, heavy rain in fact. So much rain that it surprised all the folks who came into Austin for SXSW. Many had heard about the droughts in Texas and wondered what all the fuss was about, after spending most of the weekend with soggy clothes and feet. Us Texans had to assure them the rain was not only freaky but very, very welcomed. Short answer to them foreigners was to tough it out because we NEEDED the rain!

But the rain also caused a big problem for the folks staging Luminaria. After all, the entire event is held outside. In fact, it has to be held outside with attendances numbering 300,000 in past years. The issue was that rain, art and especially electronics just aren’t a good mix any way you look at it. Attendance was going to be down for the event. Several of the installations would either be damaged or couldn’t be staged. In general, it just presented a big problem for everyone. So, at almost the last minute, Luminaria was postponed to the first weekend in May.

So now San Antonio prepares to celebrate Luminaria: Art Comes to Light, a celebration of San Antonio’s vibrant arts community with a host of stages and exhibitions. Of course, the finale is the Lantern Release planned for around 1 a.m. in the morning. Throughout the night there will be performances on 12 different stages in and around Hemisfair Park. It’s definitely going to be a fun-filled evening downtown, generously sponsored by Rackspace Hosting and other great sponsors.

So look for me from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the NowcastSA Luminaria page where I’ll be one of three different teams helping bring the event to the world.