Pittsburgh's 2008 Festival of Lights Celebrates the 250th Birthday

Pittsburgh loves festivals, and right now you can enjoy two: Festival of Lights and Festival of Firsts. For the 2008 Festival of Lights, the city has outdone itself to celebrate its historic founding. Lighting installations, combined with experimental art installations, provide a festive backdrop for a city that already has much to offer tourists.

Yes, both outdoors and indoors (in art galleries and experimental warehouse labs), Pittsburgh is lighted like an artsy birthday cake until November 20. Duquesne Light presents the outdoor spectacle by French designer Lucette de Rugy of Artlumiere, while Pittsburgh Cultural Trust hosts artists' installations that experiment with light . . . all kinds of light and degrees of darkness, too.

You'll see the solar system in lights at Katz Plaza, the Omni William Penn Hotel covered with mountain laurel in bloom (lights), a film projected onto the front of Carnegie Museum of Art, and more. (Take popcorn for this last one. It's long. You've never had so much fun watching a lion destroy a motel room! The kids will love it! The beaver is cute, too, and many of Pittsburgh's "pets" are in it.)

The lighting extravaganza is overlaid on a city whose everyday (or every night) tapestry is already stunning. Lighted fountains and riverboats reflected in three rivers always dazzle visitors. In addition, the Cultural District's theater lights frame beautiful restoration projects. Even if you aren't going to the theater, find a sidewalk table for a latte, and take a walk down the dozen downtown blocks of Penn Avenue. Read signs on buildings as you go to get a sense of the history that is preserved here.

Knowing a little of Pittsburgh's early history enhances any trip here. When British General John Forbes drove the French from Fort Duquesne on November 25, 1758, his victory marked the beginning of British dominance of this continent and eventually opened the door to empire for the English throughout the world. Although the war wasn't officially ended until 1763, Forbes took over "the Point," the gateway to the West, where the Ohio River is formed from the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers.

Forbes commissioned Fort Pitt, which he named after British Prime Minister William Pitt, in 1758, and hundreds of local settlers, British soldiers, and colonial militia gathered there and guarded the entrance to French territory west of the Ohio. Visit Fort Pitt Museum, nothing like a fort with costumed guides, but a modern history museum at Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh. You don't need transportation; you can walk.

Before that in 1753, George Washington had been sent by Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia to order the French out of the area. Washington knew when he saw "the Point," that whoever controlled this spot would control the country. Any visitor who rides one of two inclines from Carson Street to Mount Washington can see for himself the same geography the young militia officer beheld spread out before him like the future of a mighty nation.

In 1754, Washington's first command ended in surrender to the French at Fort Necessity, southeast of Pittsburgh on Route 40, designated our National Road. Any visitor who wants to make a theme trip about the French and Indian War might stop there, where costumed guides narrate the story, and museums of the War and of the National Road accentuate the importance of southwestern Pennsylvania in early colonial times.

At Fort Necessity, you can tour Washington's Tavern and get a map to navigate to Jumonville Glen and Braddock's grave. This is an interesting little road trip in itself. When French officer Jumonville was shot, newspapers around the world quoted British statesman Horace Walpole: "The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire." You can drive to where this event ignited fury around the world.

This is only a fragment of the history Pittsburgh and nearby countryside can tell. In addition to Fort Pitt Museum and Fort Necessity, every visitor must see exhibits at Heinz Regional History Center, a Smithsonian. It's the largest history museum in Pennsylvania. On six floors, exhibits are dedicated to the Whiskey Rebellion, Underground Railroad, Lewis and Clark Expedition, steel industry, immigration, the Golden Era, and more.

The Festival of Lights celebrates all this history, plus Pittsburgh's pre-eminence in installation art and artistic experimentation with light. At Wood Street Galleries until Dec. 31, 2008, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents the world premier of ZEE[RANGE], an installation by Austrian artist Kurt Hentschlager.

Through Oct. 30, the Trust also curates Gravity of Light, an exhibit of seven mural-size photographs illuminated by a carbon arc lamp that was reinvented by artists Doug and Mike Starn. This U. S. premier installation, originally exhibited in Stockholm, is at the Pipe Building, 3000 Liberty Avenue.

If that isn't enough installation art for you, visit the Mattress Factory on Pittsburgh's North Side for several floors of permanent and temporary experiments. The Mattress Factory hosts artists from around the world, who live here while they build their room-size exhibits, and this museum is one of only a few of its kind in the world.

There is history and art enough for a long visit in Pittsburgh, but even for day-trippers, the Heinz and Fort Pitt Museums are walkable from any spot downtown. Plan your visit before Nov. 20 to see the lights. Just Ducky Tours and Molly's Trolley run tours after dark to lighting installations until that date, or you can download walking maps or get a list of locations to get walking maps for both downtown Pittsburgh and Oakland at http://www.pittsburghcelebrates.org/

Pittsburgh's 2008 Festival of Lights is the largest of its kind in the nation with over 20 installations. Eleven churches and cathedrals are included, and they beautifully display the city's ethnic and architectural heritage. See for yourself the inventiveness of this city.

Here are a few links to help you plan your trip:

http://www.fortpittmuseum.com/WelcomePage.html

http://www.nps.gov/fone/

http://www.pghhistory.org/

http://incline.pghfree.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monongahela_Incline

http://www.mattress.org/

http://www.woodstreetgalleries.org/home.html