COVINGTON, Ky. — BLINK, Cincinnati's art and light festival, is returning for 2022 with plans to expand the show even further into the Northern Kentucky area.
Organizers said the 2022 festival will continue to build on the extension across the Roebling into Covington that was established in 2019. The Covington Plaza area will have a full BLINK experience, with large-scale installations taking shape along the riverfront to be seen from both sides of the Ohio River.
"We're really thinking about, how do we create space for people knowing that people may want a little more room for each other when they're standing side by side," said Justing Brookhart, BLINK's executive director. "What you'll see when we release the BLINK map later this year is that we're expanding our footprint a little bit."
In 2022, the festival will take over more of Cincinnati and Covington, with displays stretching into Mainstrasse. Exhibits will span from Findlay Market, through Over-the-Rhine, Downtown and the Banks and into Covington.
"So think bigger murals, bigger projection sites for us," said Brookhart. "We have some of the largest that we're ever going to do. We're hoping to bring the largest mural in the history of Cincinnati to BLINK this year."
In 2019, over 1.3 million people walked the streets of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky to experience the light and art show put on as part of BLINK, organizers said. The festival was so popular that its website crashed under the weight of searches and demand the night before the show launched in 2019.
That year, so many pedestrians and cars filled the Roebling Bridge that safety concerns arose — something Brookhart said they're trying to address this year.
"We're kind of playing around with a version of still illuminating the Roebling so it can look great and photograph well and still be a part of the experience, but is primarily a way of getting people from one side of the river to the other," he said.
In 2021, then-mayor John Cranley announced the planned to use American Rescue Plan funds to bring the festival back to Cincinnati this year. Cranley said city officials called for $1 million of the city's $290 million from the ARP would go to BLINK to help artistic endeavors recover after the industry was deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival debuted in 2017 and has been a free, multi-day outdoor art experience.
In 2022, the festival will run for four days and span 30 city blocks, flooding the streets of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky with street art, projection mapping and light-based installations. It's set to take place Oct. 13 through Oct. 16.
