The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
FireFish finishes preparation for party
3rd annual celebration will kick off Oct. 6
Local residents can expect a flurry of activity Oct. 6 leading up to the opening night concert for the third annual FireFish Festival on Broadway in Lorain.
FireFish Festival organizers on Oct. 5 continued their preparations for the third annual arts festival on Broadway.
Much of the work dealt with nuts and bolts details of festival planning, along with screws and scales.
“These are spaces that have not been used for a while and Building and Fire Departments want to make sure they’re safe to invite the public in,” said FireFish Executive Director James Levin as he used a screwdriver to mount a fire extinguisher bracket at the gallery space inside the Charleston Coffee House.
“I appreciate the fact that the property owners cleared them out and emptied them out for us,” Levin said. “Now we have to make them legal.”
The same afternoon, local
members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lorain County painted cardboard cutout scales that would be clipped onto the FireFish that will burn in the festival finale parade.
The fish, designed and built with help from students in the Boys and Girls Clubs and Lorain schools PACE program, was stored in the California Avenue warehouse of attorney Anthony Giardini, who donated the space, Levin said. He thanked Giardini and a number of other donors who are contributing to this year’s event.
For example, Jeremy and Rhoda Rak of Ohio Gold & Diamond Exchange, which is Lorain’s historic former post office at 863 Broadway, have donated their building to become a stage and a “canvas” for art. Terry Kushinski of Kush’s Custom Cabinetry, 842 and 846 Broadway, donated cabinets he built to cover the projectors that will shine images on the façade of the old post office across Broadway, Levin said.
“That thing is going to be awesome,” said Kushinski, who has seen some of the after-dark compositions of projection map artist Kevin Jackson.
“I haven’t been to any of them, I’m definitely coming to this one,” Kushinski said about the FireFish Festival. “There’s going to be 20 different color palettes on that building. He started doing it and I’m like, wow.”
With the ceremonial burning of the FireFish, the Lorain Fire Department has
an additional interest in this year’s festival parade, so there will be a fire truck “which they’re doing for safety reasons, but I also think it looks cool,” Levin said.
FireFish has become one of three draws beginning to attract attention to downtown Lorain, said Mayor Chase Ritenauer. In neighboring Cuyahoga County, Rockin’ on the River and BrewFest Waterfront District also have piqued the interest of people, the mayor said.
“It’s almost a calling card for Lorain,” Ritenauer said.
The local group 100 Guys Who Care About Lorain County is a group of men who each donate $100 per quarter to local charitable groups. This week its members voted to give its
quarterly contribution to the FireFish STEAM Academy, a program for Lorain and Elyria youths to learn more about science, technology,
engineering, arts and math.
“That’s huge – we’re very happy about that,” Levin said. “That’s great news.”