By Elexa Kopty:
The industrial graveyard known as Silo City is springing back to life on September 8th for what promises to be a night of art, history, culture and sustainability.
City of Night, presented by the Emerging Leaders in the Arts Buffalo (ELAB) is a celebration of all that Buffalo has to offer today presented within the iconic setting of yesterday: the grain elevators in the Old First Ward. From 4pm to 2am, Silo City will be bustling once again. The event will take off with a bike ride in conjunction with GO Bike Buffalo, starting downtown and ending at the event site. The entertainment list includes art installations, live murals, vendors, historical tours, breakdancers and more. Performances will be held both on a main stage and throughout the site. Local food trucks will be there, plus a beer and wine tent. Kayak tours and rentals will be offered by Buffalo Harbor Kayak, and the night will end with an audio/visual projection on the grain elevators.
The event is free of charge. Funding came from a grant from the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation and help from the Art Services Initiative. The investment was important to ELAB members, a group of young collaborative artists and art-lovers who have been planning the event for about a year. Dana Saylor, the event coordinator expressed that she doesn’t want this to be seen as simply a “Save the Silos” party, rather a collaborative celebration of all that Buffalo was, is and has potential to be. To Dana and the rest of the ELAB team, the grain elevators are an appropriate setting because as she puts it, “they’re a living memorial of the industrial class, but also a symbol of rebirth of the city.” With projects popping up more and more frequently, Silo City may be one of many symbols of the dawn of a new time in Buffalo. City of Night will be a celebration of just that (Facebook event).