The most exciting event in Upper Falls in years will happen in just a few weeks. On Sunday June 23, the longest table anyone has ever seen will be assembled for The Feast of The Falls.
Two hundred and fifty guests will break bread together at a sit-down, catered feast, on a single table clothed table in Hemlock Gorge. Lanterns will be hung in the trees, lights will be hung on Echo Bridge, roving musicians will entertain the guests. It will be a spectacle.
The Feast is being held for the people of Upper Falls by the businesses and organizations of Upper Falls. All but 20 of the free tickets have already been distributed on a first come, first served basis to local residents. The tickets were released on a web site last night and they were all gone by this morning.
The Feast of The Falls is the brainchild of Seana Gaherin from Dunn Gaherin’s restaurant. She teamed up with local caterer Chris Osborn of Better Life Foods, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, and the Upper Falls CDC to pull it off. The event is intended as the “first annual” and they plan on turning it into an Upper Falls institution.
The food will be served by a VIP crew of waiters and waitresses featuring our local elected officials and a who’s who of familiar faces from the businesses of Upper Falls.
For those not fortunate enough to live in Upper Falls and score a free ticket, there is one other way to get a seat at the table. Twenty tickets have been reserved and are being auctioned to the highest bidder (minimum bid=$20/ticket). All proceeds from the sale of the tickets will go to support both local (Friends of Hemlock Gorge and Emerson Playground Rebuilding) and global (Tzu Chi Disaster Relief Fund) charities. So please spend wildly and recklessly and bid up the price of those few remaining tickets to ridiculous levels. Click here to place your bid or get more info.
This is an event that you will definitely not want to miss.
The first bid just came in for two tickets. The auction is now off and running !
$20 will make you one of the high bidders …. at least for the moment.
This sounds fabulous and a great cause to support ! I just bid on 4 tickets !!
We’re delighted that our elected officials/waiters are willing to take their “public servant” roles so literally for the night.
We just measured it out, located the kitchen, the serving tables, where the musicians go, and best of all … where to put a 250 foot long table. It is going to be spectacular!!!
We just added the current bids to the auction web page.
Jerry states that this may the most exciting event in Upper Falls in many years, but for Hemlock Gorge and Echo Bridge you have to go back more than a century for something comparable. At the turn of the last century, Hemlock Gorge was the site of Echo Bridge Park which drew people from around the Boston area for some state of the art daytime and night time entertainment. It featured a large pavilion and dance hall, electric lanterns (the first in any American park) that lit up Echo Bridge at night and great bands and orchestras. This amusement park was closed when the State decided to turn Hemlock Gorge into a natural park. Norumbega Park took up the slack.
I was almost going to say that the lanterns at Echo Bridge Park were the last time the Bridge was lit up at night, but I seem to recall one Jerry Reilly doing something to light up the bridge a few years back. Regardless, this should be a night to remember.
More detail on all of this can be found in Ken Newcomb’s “Makers of the Mold” , or Ken’s wonderful walking tour of Hemlock Gorge that you can find on the Friends of Hemlock Gorge website.
Bob, I have heard unconfirmed rumors that King Pong may make another appearance on Echo Bridge in the next few weeks.
Upper Falls is certainly on the cutting edge of things village in Newton. Pretty soon you are going to have honeymooners coming from all over America to Echo Bridge as they did more than a century ago when it was second only to Niagara Falls as a destination for newly weds.
And they will be coming specifically to see King Pong.
Bob – Our neighbors around the corner were married on Echo Bridge just a few years ago. In fact I’ve been bugging them lately to send some wedding photos for inclusion in our neighborhood newsletter,- the Upper Falls News.
I haven’t heard of anyone honeymooning there yet, so maybe we need to build a luxury hotel just outside the park.
Jerry – It looks like on the Auction Site that all 20 tickets are now taken. Can you explain on this blog or elsewhere how the auction is working so others can still bid the tickets up.
I’s be happy to. The auction page describes how the auction works. The bottom of the page lists the current high bids on all tickets.
At the moment, there are 3 tickets priced at $20/ticket. Say you wanted to bid on a pair of tickets, you could bid $25/ticket and you would instantly be the high bidder for those two tickets … at least until the next bid comes in.
Also, you could bid $25 and also specify that you would pay a maximum of $40. In that case, if you are later outbid, we’ll automatically increase your $25 bid, in $5 steps as necessary to keep you as a high bidder … or until you reached $40.
June 19 will be my 9 year wedding anniversary! On that day i married the love of my life upon Echo Bridge! It is a place that holds a special piece in my heart! I am looking forward to an interestingly great night at The Feast of the Falls!
@Karen Fraser Lloyd – Please ask for me, and introduce yourself on the night. I think your anniversary (of an Echo Bridge wedding no less) deserves a toast by 250 of your neighbors.
I’m assuming you already have your tickets under a different name. I didn’t see your on the list. If not contact me via email ([email protected])
Tickets to the Feast of The Falls are still available via the on-line auction. They can still be had (at the moment) for $30/ticket and they’re available to anyone in the city – not just Upper Falls residents.
Link above is now fixed – sorry
It’s the last 24 hours for the last available tickets to this Sunday’s “Feast at The Falls”. The auction ends tomorrow at 5 PM. At the moment you could be a high bidder for $35/ticket.
This ends today’s shameless hucksterism.
How’s this for a good omen for this Sunday’s Feast of The Falls