See a Light Show at Boathouse Row During a Free Festival
![The Boathouse Row lights were a patriotic red, white and blue during the DNC. Photo by R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia](https://cdn10.phillymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Boathouse_Row-627x360.jpg)
The Boathouse Row lights were a patriotic red, white and blue during the DNC. Photo by R. Kennedy for Visit Philadelphia
The other day I was driving on 76 after dark and had a split second of panic that I was approaching the wrong city. The Boathouse Row lights were (temporarily) off, and without the “Welcome to Philadelphia!” postcard image out my left window I didn’t know where I was. The next time I drove by, they were an electric blue.
The lights got a major upgrade just before the Democratic National Convention came to town, and the Fairmount Parks Conservancy and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation are showing off everything the new computer-controlled system can do at a street festival and light show on Saturday, September 24th. It’s free and open to the public.
The festival kicks off at 5 p.m. with live music from Hurry C, DJ Reed Streets, food trucks, and the traveling pop-up beer garden Parks on Tap, who is a partner for the event. The light show will be at dusk, just after 7:30 p.m., but the party continues until 10 p.m.
The location is designed for the best views: Across from Boathouse Row on Martin Luther King Drive, by the Fairmount fish ladder. Directions are here.
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