The executive director of BLINK says she wants to make sure the four-night festival is welcoming.
Leslie Mooney was named executive director last year, shortly after the art and light festival started accepting pitches from artists. She says at the last event, in 2024, she and her family found themselves mesmerized by a skating demonstration at Liberty and Elm.
“You realize, you kind of look around and you’re having this collective experience with others,” she says. “It’s always so diverse, age wise, race wise, et cetera, and that is what I love about BLINK.”
Mooney says she wants BLINK to keep growing, and to stay welcoming for visitors, for artists and for sponsors.
“As we continue to grow and we have Blink synonymous with things like SXSW, or Coachella, getting on those levels, we attract more and more folks from outside the region who can put some resources behind us,” she says. “Because it has to stay, it will always be free and open to the public. That’s always the ethos of BLINK.”
Mooney says BLINK costs about $8 million to produce. She says that covers equipment, artist fees, public safety, and accessibility consultants.
What's happening at BLINK this year
The fifth BLINK festival will have four nights of drone shows again, and new murals, but the centerpiece will again be Music Hall. Mooney says four artists will be working on the projection mapping there, and one of them has an America 250 commission.
“We got some funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the America 250 Ohio Commission, and Duke Energy,” she says. “It’s got a great tie-in with the CSO [Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra] because it’s set to 'Fanfare for the Common Man' [a song] which was commissioned by the CSO following World War II.”
Mooney says she thinks that will appeal to people who've not been interested in BLINK before.
She says they expect 2 million people over the four nights of BLINK. Events and displays range from the Findlay Market area to Covington.
The festival starts with a street party on Central Parkway Oct. 8.
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