Luminaria: a photo essay

Luminaria: Arts Night 2008 brought out the arts loving community in full force, while street performers crowd downtown streets and dancers shimmied in and out of crowds San Antonio caught a glimpse of what it's known all along - there's talent here in our humble city. Although in the eyes of mere bystanders it was a clear success, us media folk looked at it the whole picture and found some things that need to be worked on. Which is clearly understandably, since it was the first year being held ... whatever the case, my friend and I made our way downtown with one thing in mind - to see as much as we possibly could. We merely scratched the surface but enjoyed all we took in. Here's how our night went ...

Being a member of the media entails certain advantages, one of them being kick ass parking ... while I flashed my media pass we parked within steps from the action of the Houston Street stage, where we found Urban 15/Carnaval de San Anto practicing before they hit the stage.

We stayed a bit to see the dancers shake it ...

(if you squint you can make out our very own Current account executive Lisa Endresen)

We walked down Houston Streer before the Symphony played in front of the Alamo where we caught Club Damas de Puerto Rico & Socieda Herencia Puertorriquena.

As dusk finally approached, we made out way back to the Alamo.

We were still a little early, but you could see the panels where Bill FitzGibbons LED lights would shine from.

Meanwhile, the symphony prepared themselves to perform in front of a jam-packed Alamo Plaza.

After waiting for awhile, we grew a tad impatient and headed towards HemisFair Park, with hopes to catch the Lewis and Clark Musical Expedition ... instead we were sidetracked with Greek reliefs that were in front of the Convention Center.

Then we were caught off guard with Fields of Forel as they played beautifully in a hidden area on the side of the Convention Center.

By the time, we made it to HemisFair park we were a tad disappointed with the music offering so we went back to Alamo Plaza to catch the remaining minutes of the Sysmphony perform and a pretty decent crowd had formed making it impossible to get to the front of the Alamo to capture a quick shot of the lights, so here's a crappy version:

Plus, we caught Larry Graeber's freestanding tower illuminated with glow sticks.

Then we walked around aimlessly catching as much as we could ...