Billy Cunning into Great America. Of course, the last four days blink, I call it bling, but now it's blink. Happened in the tri State, mainly from Finley Market, all the ways down Vine Street, down Ray Street, over the bridges, all the way to Newport Covington thirty blocks long, and the People's Judge and I, along with Sean Donovan and a hotty he's dating, found ourselves. We decided to have a little dinner quickly at OTR, which we did at
Itchy Bin. Then we walked up to a music hall, walked over to Greaters, then try to walk from Greaters back to like Fifth Street. That was impossible. I was shocked and amazed at what I saw. Brendan call, You're the David Axelrod to Barack Husain Obama. You're the axel Rod to Charlie Lucan, You're head of the Chamber. You're in charge of this event. May I tell you why I was shocked?
Tell me.
So we go to Itchybin, which is the old Washington Platform, have a nice dinner there with the Itchi Bin Japanese steakhouse, and we walked we tried to walk from there to music hall It was so crowded you could had to wait for the walk lights across Central Parkway to go north. I'm thinking, what in the hell is going on? This is like seven pm on Saturday night. We finally make our way to Music Hall and they had this fantastic
light show up against the facade and Washington Park. By the way, when you get time, google William Cunningham resurrectionist. William Cunningham and resurrectionist. He made lots of money out of Washington Park when it was a cemetery, you might recall, in the eighteen seventies, before even Charlie Lucan was born. But nonetheless I regress. So we're standing there to Washington Park. Was it was cheek to cheek, it was, but the butt it must have been tent. You couldn't move in
Washington Park. I felt like a pin in a bowling alley. I was and walking around left and right with my shoulders up against my thighs. And this went off for like twenty twenty five minutes. People are going nuts, jumping in and out of the fountain, hanging on the trees. The look at this light show Music Hall. We then make our way slowly because you can't walk in the crowds over the Greaters. We try to go left to go up to Finley Market. We couldn't, couldn't go. We couldn't, couldn't,
couldn't walk there. And we then walked back down Vine Street and we got about a block and it was gridlock. The cars are every whitch direction. Charmaine McGuffey had a couple of sheriffs deep and he's there. Good luck with that.
Uh.
And then we get down to Court Street. We get down to Court Street, look left and right. Had to wait two or three times to get to the walk light now to cross the street.
We finally said a hell with it.
About an hour and a half, we walked back to Court Street to Shaan Donovan's pallatial estate and then drove home and I said, look, we can't go that way. We got to go that way to City Hall to get on seventy five. To get out, what in the hell's going on in this town? I want to know from you, Brendan, call what in the hell is going on?
It sounds to me like you found Blink.
Finally, I kept looking around, where's Blake? Where in the hell's Blake? And Blake was everywhere.
You told me you had an incredible show at Music Hall.
Yeah, you probably saw the Kroger Building, which, Ye, the Kroger Building looked like it was on It looked like it was on acid.
Yes, it was.
It was.
The whole building.
Looked like it was wobbling thanks to the lasers that we had there.
Uh.
The Neil Armstrong Mural, which I don't know if you saw, was my favorite over the weekend, As I told you it would be. It was amazing. But then there were like all these other little spots throughout town that people were just uh, it was magic. And and I know you're talking about being crowded and watching park and crowded at the banks, but this is the happiest crowd I've seen. No one was complaining. People were talking to each other
and have it. I think there were some people maybe having some drinks maybe and it maybe a little and you know what, people were just exuberant. It was. It was so great to see our city this way. I know of folks who were riding around and walking around and just were so happy to see how full the city wasn't how beautiful it looked.
Now, let's deal with some facts you deal with hyperbole, I deal with facts. Is it coming back anytime soon?
You know, this was so wildly successful it is bad etiquette to ask the team who produced the event about the next event the morning after they're still taking stuff down. But this is a huge, huge success. We love this event. I think this city loves this event. And to be completely honest, non exaggeration, this event is on the world stage. We had artists from nine hundred artists applied to be
a part of Blank. Two hundred came. Many of them it was their first time in the United States, and they are not talking about coming to the United States. They're talking about coming to Cincinnati because they know what happens here and so it'll be you know, we're excited to talk about what's next. We're just not going to do it today.
Who pays for it?
We are very fortunate that the city Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Meet NKY, which is the tourism work in Northern Kentucky, the Hale Foundation, Arts, Wave, Proctor Kroger, Western Southern American Financial, ALTA, Fiber. We start down the list and I got to go on and on and on because so many companies, whether it was you know HGC groups sponsoring the Neil Armstrong mural companies having their logos in the sky as part
of a drone exhibits that we did. Everybody wanted to be a part of this and we are very uh fortunate for that.
Well as far as the crowds, can you give an estimate how many human beings were there at some point Thursday through Sunday. I think all the humanity was there. There were six billion.
People and I didn't feel that way, any.
Idea any and you said, and make make your card available for me. Hell, I couldn't get in the cart. There was no room on the streets, no room on the sideways. You walked, you couldn't move.
Uh.
It's how many people showed up.
I had my parents, my parents and my wife and kids with me on Saturday night for a while, and I did have a cart to be able to move move around from a work perspective, and uh, at one point I just said we just set to walk there there was no moving Uh. Uh you couldn't move a vehicle through here. I will say Synceday police since the fire coming to Newport, the Post service officials, they were awesome. Uh and for making sure people were safe. It was. It was a one wonderful night with no problems in
that regard to street car was full and escorted. So we were lucky in that regard that we've got, you know, police officers and sheriffs who just did such an awesome job.
From a crowd perspective.
Give me a number, I need a number.
Well, I know you don't believe that, but we actually do some calculations to try and figure out. We take pictures and we try and look at turns and how many times people are down here. Last year we said we you know, we estimated about two million people experienced blink over the course of the four days. I can tell you that, you know, having been a part of the product production team, it felt like more in a lot of the things that we look at. But we're not going to do a number until we spend some
time looking at it. But it definitely felt like more than two years ago.
Well, in the metro there's about two million people that live within about fifty miles of Fountain Square. I would assume everyone was there. It looked like some scene of Star Trek in which everybody says, yeah, of.
Course, of course, you know, we don't care like if somebody comes.
Four times that that that's four generally is how that works. But you know, look, it was it was awesome. It was awesome, and you know the fact that we have a free public art. We had music experiences. And you said the restaurants, I mean the folks that the bars and restaurants were jamming and a lot of them used it as an opportunity to douce themselves to customers, which was really cool.
What did I miss on Fountain Square? We intended to go to Finley Market. Couldn't get there. We intended to walk down to Fountain Square. Couldn't get there. We intended to take the suspension bridge, couldn't get there. We intended to go to Covington, where I was born. Couldn't get there. We intended to walk across.
Were you stopping it?
Were you stopping at the bars because they wasn't that hard to move around.
I mean, were you doing like.
A blink a blank pub crawl?
You don't understand what it was like on Vine Street? I mean I do.
Did you get stuck at the Bay Horse for a few I.
Never got that far. We couldn't get past Court Street from from UH Square.
Look, what did I miss? Fountain Career was super cool? They Fifth Third Bank, Uh they are They're so awesome. They have a whole creative team at the bank, and you know it, people think of bankers as bankers, but this this this organization has a bunch of creatives and they they got together and they made They partnered with a group called Big Art and they made this huge installation on the middle of Fountain Square. It was a giant cube that you could walk through. They had images
projected of Cincinnati. They had all of these doors that looked like your you know, doors and windows that you could walk up to. Every time you opened the door, there was a screen on the inside and there was different art there to experience.
So that was pretty cool.
I was. I was really impressed with what Fifth Third did.
You could spend four hours on Fountain Square and never leave Fountain Square, right.
There were a lot of people who hung out in one particular area, like within a block of Fountain Square. There was stuff to do. The Covington meet NK. I helped us with the Covington project, and you know, there was a huge projection on a building just past the event, and then there was this thing called Flux that was all of this lighted. I don't even know what it looked like, beads that were lit, but they were. We were projecting on it and there were four cameras, so
kids were putting their faces on it and dancing. And that's the other thing. There are so many kids it was. It was awesome.
Well all I can say my sources tell me it's going to be two years from now. But the cost was multi millions of dollars and of Corporate America and Cincinnati steps forward. And to phrase some of these expenses, that's pocket change to all the rich guys in town. But nonetheless, if you can do this every two years, this it can't grow anymore. I mean, it's maxed out. You can't put any more people in between Finley Market and coming to Newport, Licking River, Fountain Square, Washington Park.
There's no more. You can't grow it all.
I know you're used to those, you know, exclusive environments where it's not you know, you're not down with the massive I will tell.
You it was not.
It was not as.
Dramatic as you say.
I mean I I walked into Washington Park and had no problem getting you know, food and stuff like that. It was it was not that you're you're being maybe a tiny bit dramatic. I can't I can't imagine that. We don't find it true.
Have you thought about getting rid of the Chamber of Commerce, going back into the into the grind of regular politics. I can see you and Luke and Season Control once again as Axelrod and Obama and ruined for a thousand year old.
You don't have any fun. You have no fun doing now.
I have the greatest gig.
We were We are working on so much right now here at the Chamber, supporting our small businesses in this community. And uh, we were working on an arena study which has been in the news, looking to see whether or not we need arena in this community. So we'll release that here in a few weeks. And uh, this is this is an awesome job. We've got great partners at the city. The look there were people in town. You've
probably heard rumors, but you know Cincinnati. This was a weekend where we got to show Cincinnati off to businesses and organizations that are thinking of moving here, businesses here, people here. We couldn't have looked better.
Weather was perfect, no criminal activity, happy families walking around pub crawls Corporate Cincinnati stood up. It could not be more perfect. I kind of worry about the future because we've reached nirvana and we can't go any better than this.
Where we can where else in the world.
Where do you want to live other than this place?
Well, you're almost half convinced to buy a condo on Republic Street, but I kind of doubt.
I saw you were taking down notes, hitting up the fifty cline website.
Lastly, will you spend a moment or two you need a.
Little peditaire on Street.
I don't know about that one, but it's a great place to visit before you cut.
Yeah, he's where's Billy these days?
Oh he's at seventeenth and Vine in a little condo, hanging out, having a great time.
I don't see that happening, but I guess anything's possible. Before the day ends, google William Cunningham Resurrectionists and see what you find. Because my roots go deep into Washington Park, I mean really deep into the ground of Washington Park. William Cunningham Resurrectionist. Look that up.
I'll do it all right.
Brendan call good luck. It can't get no better. Makes me feel sad for the rest. We got the best, and that's it. We're done.
I'm so glad you found Blink blink.
It's out there somewhere. I saw a lot of it. I don't want to see anymore. No one's gonna come next year because it's too crowded. There's just people everywhere. All right, Brendan, all right, Brendan call, give my best to Charlie Luke and the man who would be mayor, give my best. Brendan call, all right, Let's continue with more. He controls the taste of Cincinnati october Fest and blink or blink, it's unbelievable. Let's continue. Bill Cunningham, News Radio, seven hundred WULW