Lower Manhattan as seen from Governor's Island.
Last Saturday we did something that most New Yorkers haven’t done yet. We went to Governor’s Island. For over 200 years this has been a military installation of one sort or another, most recently occupied by the Coast Guard, and off limits to civilians. A few years ago it was deeded to the city to be operated as a park and historical landmark. The ferry ride from the very tip of Lower Manhattan is free and only takes four minutes once you are underway. I wasn’t really expecting much more than a commanding view of the skyline on a pretty sunny day. The army barracks and quarters for the top brass are still there, everything is pretty much as it was when it served to protect the harbor. Today the island is open to the public six months a year and is generally used for bicycling and picnics.
When we got off of the ferry we started to notice things were just a bit askew. We could hear something like tribal drumming in the distance and a few people were in brightly colored costumes. As we moved further into the island more and more unusual sights unfolded before us. Without knowing it we had stumbled on to the annual Figment Arts Festival. This is a three day event of 150 or so interactive sculptures, exhibits, and installations, scattered across the island and all taking place simultaneously. It is practically impossible to describe the scene. It is part Midsummer Night’s Dream, Renaissance Festival, Volker Fountain in the 1970s, Fairyland Park, Zardoz, Peter Pan, all rolled into one big Hippie-fest. All this is juxtaposed against the backdrop of the abandoned military cannons and you have a very surreal scene of the patients taking over the asylum or some post apocalyptic movie.
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