Katie Almazan
Buckets of water surrounded the perimeter of the Cesar Chavez Plaza fountain and a large crowd gathered as everyone anxiously anticipated the reveal of the Concerts in the Park 2017 lineup. But what was going to happen next was something no one expected and, quite frankly, many didn’t think possible. On a count, the buckets of water were released and revealed on the concrete was the epic #CIPSAC lineup in a paint that can only be seen when activated with water. Minds were blown and cameras were working overtime to capture the magic.
So, how exactly did we make this work? Introducing… Rainworks! It was all inspired from our State of Downtown keynote speaker Peter Kageyama when he gave examples of activations that make cities lovable, highlighting how an artist in Seattle was using Rainworks to make art around the city. We instantly fell in love with the idea and wanted to bring this amazingness to Sacramento. So, we did.
Our first order of business was finding someone who could create 8 foot stencils and then narrowing down material that would hold up. It certainly wasn’t an easy process to create on such a large scale. Thankfully, we found a local company, Obra, who could make our dream a reality (quite flawlessly, we might add!). Once the stencils were finalized, our team gathered on Wednesday evening to arrange and tape them around the fountain.
Everything was fine and dandy until the wind picked up… Let’s just say we spent a fair amount of time chasing stencils and frantically taping them down! Once all the stencils were arranged and perfected, the product was then sprayed and then the stencils removed. The installation took about 3.5 hours and 57 different stencils were made! While the final result only lasts while wet, the memory of our Lunch + Launch Lineup reveal will forever remain.
Check out the Tour de Drone footage of the epic reveal below and use our interactive lineup graphic to learn more about who will be playing at #CIPSAC this summer!
