Thursday, October 2, 2008, 01:20 PM EST [
General]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PITTSBURGH!! This saturday is the big celebration of 250 years of Pittsburgh, Here are the details of the fun festivities going on:
Pittsburgh will mark its 250th birthday with a million-dollar celebration on Saturday.The busiest weekend of the region's year-long "sesquibicentennial"
will begin with a more-than-100-vessel Three Rivers aquatic parade and
end with the city's largest-ever display of aerial pyrotechnics.
"Imagine Pittsburgh" fireworks will be launched from 17 sites on the
Three Rivers, the North Side and Downtown.
Most Saturday activities will center around Point State Park at the
tip of the city's Golden Triangle.
The Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is asking "Birthday
Blowout" participants to bring a few nonperishable grocery items to the
events. People donating food or cash at food bank trucks on
Commonwealth Place will receive mini-glow sticks.
Related events include a Pittsburgh Opera open house at its offices
in the Strip District on Saturday and a French and Indian War-era
encampment at Boyce Park in Monroeville and Plum on both Saturday and
Sunday.
Activities will get under way Friday with the arrival in Pittsburgh
of the Delta Queen, a 285-foot-long steamboat built in 1927. The Delta
Queen will take part in Saturday's 250th Flotilla Cruise.
The aquatic event, organized by Port of Pittsburgh Commission, will
feature watercraft ranging from sternwheelers like the Delta Queen to
Chinese dragon boats to canoes and kayaks. When the city marked its
sesquicentennial in 1908 -- its 150th birthday -- a similar event drew
more than 300,000 to the banks of what were much dirtier rivers.
Best places to view the flotilla will include North Shore Riverfront
Park, between Heinz Field and PNC Park, and Point State Park.
Other morning highlights will include the 11:30 a.m. unveiling, on
the Point State Park stage, of the Forbes medallion, named for the
general who led the military expedition that drove the French from the
Ohio Valley. The 30-inch bronze medal was commissioned by the Colcom
Foundation, the principal sponsor of Saturday's activities, and will be
installed near the Fort Pitt Museum at a later date.
A "Pittsburgh Born & Bred" concert will offer more than five
hours of music by local artists. It will start at 4:30 p.m. on the
Point State Park Stage.
That same venue also will be the site for a skit by performers from
Pittsburgh CLO on "The Naming of Pittsburgh." That brief performance
will start at 2 p.m.
Teams of bicycle riders in the PNC Legacy Relay are scheduled to
travel from Washington, D.C., to Point State Park in 24 hours. They
will leave Washington Friday afternoon and arrive in Pittsburgh about
1:30 p.m. Saturday. Local bike riders and walkers are invited to join
them for their arrival in the renovated park at about 2 p.m.
While organizers expect to spend about $400,000 on the "Birthday
Blowout," the total cost of the event is closer to $1 million.
With 17 launch sites, the 10 p.m. Zambelli Fireworks finale will
have the largest number of firing locations ever used in the United
States, according to producer Ida D'Errico.
The show will be accompanied by music performed by Pittsburgh artists.
http://www.postgazette.com/pg/08276/916629-42.stm
