CINCINATI — It's almost time for BLINK 2024! The nation's largest art and projection mapping festival will run Thursday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 20.
More than 80 artists are set to participate in this year's festival, which stretches dozens of city blocks — from zones in Over-the-Rhine and The Banks all the way to Covington and the newly included Newport.
BLINK has officially released this year's experience map, detailing the festival's different zones, the names of each installation and restrooms, food and drink stops.
Similar to 2022, this year's event is broken down into various zones: The Findlay Market Zone, OTR Zone, Downtown Zone, The Banks Zone, Covington Zone and Newport Zone.
"Since it spans so much of our urban core, the zones function to help break the experience into more manageable pieces," said Justin Brookhart, executive director of BLINK. "We invite people to come to each, stay for awhile and return the next day to see even more of what makes this event so special."
Festival organizers said the Findlay Market Zone will have 15 new permanent murals. Cincinnati artist Daniel Shields is also set to showcase a new rendition of his popular 2022 installation "String Theory" in the area.
The OTR Zone, which includes Washington Park, will see Music Hall enveloped in light for the first time since Lumenocity.
The Downtown Zone will include updated project mapping from GraffMapping on the fan-favorite Toy Heritage mural from ArtWorks. Court Street will also transform into the Asianati Night Market again.
Three installations will also be at the special BLINK at Lytle Park section of the Downtown Zone.
The Banks Zone will have a fully programmed live music and entertainment schedule as well as the returning nightly drone show over the Ohio River.
Covington and Newport will see more of BLINK this year, with sites like Hotel Covington and Newport on the Levee lit up.
This year's map also includes trailheads to show people the best suggested loops to take for each zone. Those routes are all 1-1.5 miles.
Because the festival is meant to be explored on foot, BLINK has also announced a partnership with Metro in Cincinnati and TANK in Northern Kentucky.
"BLINK is a one-of-a-kind event that highlights the incredible offerings of the Cincinnati region, and Metro is proud to be a part of it," said Brandy Jones, Metro's chief communications and marketing officer. "Through all of the improvements made by the Reinventing Metro plan, connecting to BLINK by Park and Ride or other Metro services is efficient, reliable and safe."
Both Metro and TANK will be providing free rides beginning at 6 p.m. each night and direct routes from three "park-and-ride" locations for the 2024 festival. These "park-and-ride" locations will drop attendees off at the Riverfront Transit Center for both Metro and TANK, and TANK will also have service to the Covington Transit Center.
Cincinnati's streetcar, which runs a loop from The Findlay Market Zone to The Banks Zone, will also be available during the festival.
