Last night was the 2nd Annual Feast of the Falls, and what a night it was.
300 guests from Upper Falls sat at one long table in Hemlock Gorge and had dinner together. Once again the food was fabulous, the atmosphere fantastic, and the weather was picture perfect.
The VIP Server crew this year featured returning waiters State Rep Ruth Balser, Aldermen Deb Crossley and John Rice, Tom O’Shaugnessy from Upper Falls Variety, Henry and Kim La from the Depot Coffee Shop, Area Councillors Marie Jackson and Jeff Riklin, Julie Burke from Newton Chiropractic. New members of the VIP Servers included Pastor John Bergman and his wife Ruth from the 2nd Baptist Church, Madeline Aucoin from Upper Falls Nursery, Village14’s own Greg Reibman, Jeff and Mary from All Star Liquors, and Wu Juian from Bob’s Sub Stop.
A few new wrinkles were added this year. The guest list climbed from 250 to 300. The Echo Bridge entrance had a great big banner. The Baptist Church bells began ringing at 5PM as all the guests began arriving on foot across Echo Bridge.
Another great new addition this year was the after dinner musical campfire. Alderman Ted Hess-Mahan was drafted as the “Feast’s Pete Seeger”. Ted did a fabulous job of leading the music with lots of guests joining in for singing and playing along.
Another addition this year was an amazing engineering project, the Feast Fireflies, created specially for the event by neighbor Evan Westrate. Those who stuck around until it got dark saw fireflies throughout the woods – not just any fireflies but Feast Fireflies. Evan created dozens of independently controlled, networked simulated fireflies. First they behaved just like real fireflies but as the night wore on the began doing things no real fireflies could do.
For those of you of a technical bent you might appreciate how technically ambitious this undertaking was. Each of the fireflies was part of a wireless mesh network and independent controlled from a laptop. The electronic modules were hand assembled by Evan and built from fine pitch surface mount components. These sort of components are normally soldered via automated machinery. Evan assembled them under a microscope with surgical skill.
Of all the details of this year’s Feast this is the one that I most loved. In the context of the entire event, the Feast Fireflies were a small detail but Evan dreamed this up, threw himself into it, and built a completely unique creation just for the event – how cool is that?
Here’s a photo of the guests as they began streaming up the stairs from the bridge into the Feast
Here’s the three principal co-conspirators – Seana Gaherin from Dunn Gaherin’s Restaurant, Christopher Osborn from Better Life Food, and me as we’re about to begin the setup of the whole event yesterday afternoon with the help of an army of volunteers from the neighborhood.
For the past two years, the Feast of the Falls has been my favorite day of the entire year. It’s an exhilarating event to produce. When dinner begins and you walk down the endless table and see nothing but happy, smiling, gabbing, laughing people you know this is one very special event and very special night of the year.
Looking forward to attending this next year! I’ll be setting my alarm clock to make sure I don’t miss the opening minutes of ticket availability…
@Jerry. Who was playing the flute with Ted?? I’m so sorry that other commitments made me have to miss this year’s Feast. There’s always next year. Jerry, Seana, Chris Osborne and the rest have added so much to life in the Falls and beyond.
Bob, I believe the flautist works at Dunn-Gaherins, and does music on the side. To close the evening’s festivities, he joined me in a rousing a capella rendition of “The Parting Glass.”
Jerry, thanks to you, Seana, Chris and everyone else who made last evening an utter success (well, except maybe the raffle ;-)). My wife and I had a wonderful time.
The flutist was neighborhood local Mike Penzo.
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make this a night to remember.
Mike Penzo has been an integral part of the Feast from the start. Last year he was the wandering flautist, walking around and playing during the pre-dinner hour. This year he played with the Carriage House Violins ensemble before dinner and then joined the campfire music after dinner.
Other local musicians joining Ted and Mike were: Jen Kohn, also on flute, providing fills and accompaniment to Ted’s guitar playing. Ray Boyce was doubled up on the guitar. Lee Fisher added great touches on the harmonica. Lots of folks joined in on the singing too.
Here’s a great photo of the server team of Rep Ruth Balser and Village 14’s Greg Reibman. It’s not clear from the photo whether Greg is waving to an adoring crowd or saying “It’s me. I won the lottery tickets”
@Ted. I wish i had been there to hear “The Parting Glass.” Always one of my favorites. The Irish group “Voice Squad” does a particularly haunting version.
I’m so sorry I missed it this year. Hopefully I won’t have a conflict for 2015.
@Jerry: that’s HENRY La from the Depot! Glad it was a wonderful event again! Hope you open it to the rest of Ward 5 next year, especially those of us who eat muffins in Upper Falls every morning ;)!!!!!!!
@Sallee – Oops. Yes my fingers got ahead of my brain. Yes Henry La.
We had about 150 upper falls people on the waiting list this year. So if we open it to all of Ward 5 we’ll need to find 1/2 mile more of aqueduct
Here’s a photo of the threes stooges during my singing debut.
Here’s a good story on NewTV about this past Sunday’s Feast of the Falls.
… and a picture of the endless table before the guests arrived
I put a little write-up on the Fireflies here for anyone who didn’t get an up close look.
@Evan – Who knew that squirrels have a taste for fireflies?
I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know … at this year’s Feast of the Falls, I began to make some headway in dealing with my lifelong crippling shyness.
@Jerry. I never thought of you as a shy, retiring wallflower. Please try and make it back, if you can, to the Hemlock Gorge barbecue and Aldermanic roast.