Blink Cincinnati

Gets better each year.Traffic on the weekend is very bad.Try to go before the weekend.Some Blinks are hard to find.Some areas do not feel very safe.Music needs to be for all ages it was a little on the young side.The banks were fun...

I went to the Cincinnati Blink Festival last night, and OMG!! It was a giant sensory-rich pedestrian party, with lights, music, and murals!!! I'm so glad I used the park-and-ride at Cincinnati State, rather than trying to park downtown. Cincinnati Metro was efficient, got us to the venue quickly (and with free LED bracelets), and dropped us at the underground Riverfront garage station I hadn't heretofore realized existed. And then the party began. Walnut and Vine Streets -- the North and South streets all the way from the Riverfront to Findlay Market -- were open only to us pedestrians. The goal was to walk your own self-guided path & explore, with a map of all the exhibits in hand, which I didn't refer to as much as just following the noise and the lights. All along the route I admired and savored the art displays, the interplay of light and music, the buskers (there were many!!), the food trucks, and the clusters of parties all along the long stretch, from the riverfront to downtown proper, to Over-the-Rhine, to Findlay Market. My favorites: the spectacular drone show at the river (it was fireworks without the boom), the spinning light display at Smale Park -- you laid on the provided pillows on the ground and watched a large overhead disk where a display of lights was synced to selections of classical music; the Music Hall Display at Washington Park, which was an amazing explosion of different light configurations projected on the iconic bricks of Music Hall, with music -- it looked like spider webs, then breakthroughs of light, then little shattered pieces -- very inspiring and dramatic; all the beautiful murals -- some new pieces, some longstanding that I'd never noticed before; all the night vendors at Findlay Market; the "silent disco" happening at the Findlay Market shed -- without the provided headphones it was just a group of people silently dancing together, with the headphones you could hear the music and were invited into on the party; and even small displays like the small alley park with a tree light display made to appear that it was being repeatedly struck by lightning. Very well-organized -- it was packed with people but since it was more than 30 blocks of the city there was still a lot of room, and man, was it a feast for the entire senses! Unfortunately, I didn't get to the Covington and Newport displays, but I've got two more days of the festival for that. And at times it felt like a long walk in between displays, and I kept worrying that I was missing some good ones. But I loved the ability to do some safe urban hiking in the middle of Cincinnati with a million or so friends -- it was a great opportunity to go out somewhere by myself where I felt safe and comfortable, and see some amazing light shows!

It was a cool and unique concept when it launched, but the event has become unmanageable to attend as it has grown. Too spread out, WAY too many people, poorly mapped and curated, and extremely difficult to see even a fraction of what was on display. The park and ride was a good idea in concept, but the lines and single drop off point by the river added nothing positive to the experience. Highly unlikely we'll go again.

This is the third installment of BLINK in Cincinnati and our first time seeing this amazing light show. Earlier in the day we were eating lunch next to a woman who lives in Cincinnati who gave us tips on what to see. She said we should see the drone show by the river and definitely see Music Hall in OTR. Both were amazing. Great tip. That being said with 80 installations and a number of murals it was impossible to see everything in one night. Signage and volunteers to assist you in finding these installations were lacking. The crowds were enormous and it was difficult to use the connector streetcar because of the throngs of humanity. On the plus side the city provided free bus transportation especially the shuttle bus service from suburban areas to the event. That was a Godsend. I would not attempt to see this if I had to drive into downtown Cincinnati with the traffic jam that the bus driver ms faced. Thank you, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. A number of people including my wife and I had hotel reservations rather than worry about a long drive home. Do note that hotels downtown were at capacity and very expensive. We were fortunate to find a reasonable rate in the suburbs and take advantage of the free bus shuttle service in the park and ride lots.

This year's installment of Blink featured an amazing drone show, fireworks, a host of cool visuals, and lots of interactive displays. My biggest gripe about the event, however, is that it doesn't feel like the organizers took the feedback from the previous event (2022) to heart. The installations were way too spread out, food and vendors were expensive, and the parade (which featured a great performance by Dancefix) had too many gaps and some lackluster floats. The event felt corporatized - probably necessary given the immense cost of staging a festival of this scale - but still a detractor from the artistic roots of Blink. I would love to see the event scaled down in the future and returned to its original size. This first Blink was amazing!

Loved this event! Lots to do, great food trucks and pop up shops, and a great way for people to visit the Queen City, in a new light (pun intended). Love the emphasis on their awesome murals around the area and it's great that you can hop on the free public transit to check out each area. Will def be back!

OK you couch potatoes, throw the DVR on and record Your shows and sports..... get downtown and see BLINK. Several areas in Cincy and Covington showing off many light displays and murals . Plenty of places to stop for a break and get a drink. I parked on Court st near Queen City Exchange. Its a dollar an hour and you pay til 9PM .

If you are a foodie go to Asianati. If you are bringing the kids go to the banks. If you want to see live action murals walk around Findlay. OTR is good for fun light installments and nearby plenty of restaurants to grab food and drinks. It's a really unique thing for our city but it is SO spread out that you really need more than 3 days to see everything. Or you need to be able to walk for very long distances. The drone show is cool but it's only like 10 mins long. It should be longer. Would like to have easier access to buy fun drinks and Blink swag along the way. Hoping it's bigger and better next year. Follow me for more @angieknowsthetruth on instagram.

The art was good but whole thing is way too spread out and the facilities and transportation were really lacking--certainly not what was promoted as 'jump on a streetcar to travel from zone to zone.' We walked 12,000 steps by parking just east of Findlay at about 6:00 ($20 to park, but at least it was an attended lot), got a snack and drink at a cafe' in the OTR Zone, then on over to Music Hall at 7 for a great show--best of the night although it wasn't completely dark yet, which affected the art. And you basically end up standing the whole time unless you lug a chair or blanket. There were some nasty port-a-johns there and a public restroom with 2 stalls--yep, 2 stalls for women and another one with 2 stalls with no doors for men, for the whole Washington Park, plus long lines. But other than patronizing a restaurant, it is the ONLY public bathrooms we saw the whole night. We had to leave the park by 7:30 to hurry down to the drone show at the Banks Zone by 8, so didn't get to finish the best show of our night. We only saw 2 trollies the whole time we were there, and they were completely packed, so no help there. The drones were kind of cool, except for the stupid Alta Fiber commercial during the show, which made everyone groan. They should have at least waited until the end like other sponsors did on the other shows. The show would be even better if they installed sound to go with the it. We made our way back up through the Downtown and OTR Zones and saw a few other good things that had been recommended--Fountain Square installation, the Asianart Night Market, the Cincinnatus mural, which was so cool, then back to Music Hall to finish that experience--wayyy better in the dark. Then finally, back through Findlay where we parked. It felt a lot sketchier than earlier in the day, but we made it back to the car okay. We knew we wouldn't see everything on the north side of the river in the one night we could go, but we were disappointed we had to skip a lot of the murals and light art because of all the running back and forth to hit the highlights before it all ended. A friend tried the shuttle that dropped them at Riverfront Transit, but they found that to be inconvenient to what they wanted to see and ended up running up to the northern zones, then back south to see the drones, etc., before giving up catching the shuttle back to their car. N

way to many people probably not gonna come back to this festival.A lot of people are very rude and inconsiderate as well as disrespectful