Shining ‘Brite’ during winter

"Brite" isn't a word normally used to describe winter in Cleveland, yet a group of local artists and musicians have gathered during the past three years to put on a festival under that moniker: the Brite Winter Festival. Their purpose? To bring some light to the gloomy Cleveland winter.

This year, the third Brite Winter Festival will be held in Ohio City and will include an outdoor stage, bonfires, music performances at eight other nearby venues, participatory art projects, light art installations, quirky games and, of course, many food vendors. Neighborhood businesses have contributed much time, space, and talent to extend the number of venues, displays, programs, performances, and activities available this year.

It will also feature various participatory art and games, as well as a number of visual displays. A few games that will be offered include a box truck light and sound extravaganza, the smashdown game, giant skee-ball, giant snowflake and bring-your-own lamp light sculpture.

According to Thomas Fox, one of the event's organizers, this year's festival has "more than eight times the amount of free public programming as the first Brite Winter Festival, and four times as much as the second."

More than a dozen artists, engineers and creative groups are working together with support from General Electric (GE) Lighting, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art Department of Community Arts, Ingenuity Fest and Vertical Sound to create these art/activity installations for the festival.

"GE Lighting heard our call to make winter brighter and donated thousands of lights for our installation artists to use to create an incredible outdoor landscape," Fox said.

The first Brite Winter Festival was conceived when two Case Western graduate students, Jimmy Harris and Emily Hornack, "recognized that summer in Cleveland was awesome, better than summer in any other city they'd lived in," Fox said.

"They recognized winter in Cleveland (at the time) was challenging for most people, and a combination of circumstances led to a contagiously doldrum attitude lingering around the span between New Years and St. Patrick's Day," he continued. "They wanted to do something about those doldrums...part of the solution was called Brite Winter Festival."

Brite Winter Festival is run by an entirely volunteer steering committee, without grant funding, and is supported by in-kind donations and sponsorships from Cleveland businesses, organizations and university student groups. Donations of all kinds are accepted through the Ohio City Inc. Development Corporation, the festival's non-profit fiscal agent.

The Brite Winter festival will be held Saturday, Feb. 18, from 5 to 10 p.m. in Ohio City (West 26th and Bridge Avenue). Admission is free and open to the public. For additional details, visit britewintercleveland.com.