WaterFire Could Become Cross-Town Event

One year after members of East End Arts and the Riverhead Business Improvement District first pitched the plan for a regular series of fire-inspired activities along the Peconic River, organizers of the concept of WaterFire are hoping Southampton Town will also participate in the upcoming project.

Lisa Lowenstein, a strategic advisor to WaterFire creator Barnaby Evans, pitched the project to the Southampton Town Board at a work session Dec. 4, asking that the Southampton hamlet of Riverside, across the Peconic River from downtown Riverhead, be included in the project.

“It would be the glue that creates collaborations between the two communities,” she said.

WaterFire, a regular series in which floating bonfires are lit along rivers, with corresponding music and performance art projects along the riverside, has had international success, with Providence, RI hosting one of the most active WaterFire projects in the world.

Ms. Lowenstein, who has spent years living in Italy, said the project is an attemt to create the sense of community in the central piazzas in Italy, where neighbors stroll the streets in the early evening, meeting their friends and family.

“This is something that’s missing from our contemporary lifestyle,” she said. “You can’t create community without people moving past one another.”

Ms. Lowenstein said her group is looking to create a non-profit organization to solicit donations for WaterFire, which could involve volunteers who participate as part of a job-training program.

She asked the town board to pass a resolution expressing support for the group as they begin to solicit grants and donations.

Southampton voted Dec. 9 to support the project.