Here’s a bit of an entertainment diversion for the weekend.
Just over a month ago, several groups came together to produce an event called “Portland’s Streetcar Mobile Music Fest”, which featured eight different bands or performers on a series of streetcars over a three-hour period. The event was quite well-received, and many riders turned out specifically for the event, as well as those who were pleasantly surprised to have live music on-board.
I was hired by some of the event organizers to produce a video of the festivities. That video was recently shown in the film festival portion of the Railvolution conference in DC, and has now been released on Vimeo.
Without further ado, the overview video:
Other venues (not just streetcars!) have been discussed for future events. It was a great deal of fun to be a part of this and I hope to see events in the future which further promote other modes of transit (from buses to the aerial tram) and active transportation.
Many people were involved in making this event a success. Full credits available on the Vimeo page.
9 responses to “A Little Streetcar Music”
Hey BOB, you ever see OUR LITTLE PRODUCTION of that event?
Nice shot of my shoulder in that last one. :-)
[Moderator: Comment moved to October Open Thread. – Bob R.]
As always Bob’s productions makes ours look Mickey Mouse,But we are just a bunch of obscure transit bloggers anyway!
We are more transit historians than artists and of course none of us are big fans of streetcars either.
I’d be more into this idea if it werent for the fact they’re picking basically the second-most sardine-canned line after the blue line to do this…
I think the organizers took that into account… The event was on a Monday evening, after peak commute, with few other events going on downtown. There were a couple of ordinary streetcar runs that did not have bands, interspersed with the entertainment runs, and from what I saw those had fewer riders.
…and there were also volunteers on each streetcar to make sure there was room for passengers and to assist people in boarding. Even the official camera crews were told to move and make room for genuine riders at one point. :-)
they’re picking basically the second-most sardine-canned line after the blue line to do this
We only HAVE one streetcar line. Where else were they supposed to put it?
The noise doesn’t bother me, but I see exceptions to most transit rules (at least on the bus and MAX).
So it’s okay to play loud instruments but not talk loud and be obnoxious.
It would be wrong and probably in violation for them — or anyone — to play on the bus or MAX.
Rules is rules yo. No exceptions.