Eight-thousand people were on hand at Canalside last night for the official premiere of Buffalo's new light display.
The Connecting Terminal Grain Elevators stand across the water from Canalside. The old elevators were once part of Buffalo's economic boom and they may be once again, but this time as a "modern day work of art."
"This grain elevator is so expansive, it's so huge that it's a great blank canvas," says Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation President Tom Dee. "So with this artistic expression on it, it just lights up the night."
Dee was on hand as officials flipped the switch to turn on the lights.
"What a way to introduce this artistic expression," says Dee. "The weather is perfect, the event is perfect, the art is wonderful and we're reimaging our industrial heritage. So, it really doesn't get better."
The display was produced by Martin Gagnon of Ambiences Design Productions, a Montreal company. Gagnon says the production is composed of a multitude of systems and took hours of complex programming.
"We have four main themes inspired by the seasons," says Gagnon. "Our inspiration was the seasons viewed through the lens of a kaleidoscope. So, we're going to have one sequence running each night, cycling again. We don't have any plans to come back yet to input new content into it. It can play for at least a year or two before we think about changing it."
Gagnon says the lights are able to operate all year long, noting this is not his first experience with colder climates or even grain elevators.
"So we had another experience on grain elevators back in Quebec City, which is pretty much a similar climate as in Buffalo," says Gagnon. "So we learned a lot back then and brought that knowledge here in Buffalo."
Spectators raved about the show, calling it "beautiful" and noting it would draw more people into the city. A city, at least one spectator, says he is proud of.
