The Capital City is shining light into the darkest days of winter. For the first time, the downtown revitalization nonprofit Montpelier Alive has illuminated seven of the city’s historic bridges with thousands of bulbs. Every night through mid-February, and on special occasions, they will stand bright above the Winooski River and its North Branch. After the heartbreaking floods Montpelier experienced in 2023, the lights are a sparkling sign of community spirit and strength.
At a kickoff ceremony in mid-November, hundreds of people carrying glowing lanterns met on the Langdon Street bridge for cookies and celebratory speeches. When the bridges were lit, the lantern parade followed the Brass Balagan street band toward the Main Street bridge. The procession ended near the Taylor Street bridge for a fiery performance by Cirque de Fuego.
Senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger recorded the festivities for the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont.” She spoke with Seven Days about the filming process.
Parading over the bridges almost felt like a ritual, hoping for brighter days.
Why did you feature this event?
I love Montpelier and have been amazed by how resilient the community has been after the devastating floods. It is such a unique and funky capital, and I enjoy bringing out-of-town friends for a visit. These dark winter nights can be a bit depressing, so I jumped at an opportunity to be surrounded by people and lights.
What was the scene like?
My friend Kelly Thomas came along on the trip, and we arrived early, before the crowds had gathered. It was cool to see the empty bridge slowly fill with hundreds of people carrying creative lights. The lanterns were in a variety of interesting shapes: a bridge, the state of Vermont with a heart, a giant butterfly. It was definitely heartwarming to be surrounded by lights as darkness fell.
Tell us about the drone footage in the video.
I always wish that I had a drone to get a bird’s-eye view of large events like this. Luckily, Paul Richardson of Storyworkz was willing to share his wonderful drone footage from the evening, which included a really cool shot of the Taylor Street bridge as day turned to night. His footage of the city and bridges all lit up with the moon hovering above was also wonderful.
Covering parades can be difficult, especially when there are a lot of people. Montpelier Alive estimates that 1,000 people were in the parade!
What moments of the evening stood out to you?
There were many cute kids wearing colorful wings and blinking cat ears. We even met one young man who was celebrating his birthday. It was exciting to be out at night with the moon overhead, following a large crowd of people and listening to the invigorating music of Brass Balagan. Parading over the bridges almost felt like a ritual, hoping for brighter days. And it was fun to see the children’s faces illuminated by the explosive fire performance by Cirque de Fuego.
How is Montpelier recovering from the floods?
It’s hard not to remember those painful images of the downtown engulfed by water and people kayaking down State Street. Montpelier residents and business owners were hit so hard by the 2023 floods. It has been really inspiring to see the community come together to survive this difficult chapter. Many businesses are open and ready for the holiday rush. Now more than ever, we need to shop local to support them.
There is a set of markers at the Langdon Street bridge that really put the past floods into perspective. They show the water levels for the 1927, 1992, 2011 and 2023 floods. The 1927 marker was well above our heads and, at 535 feet relative to sea level, the highest recorded flood in the city. I can’t even imagine what the downtown must have looked like swamped by eight to 10 feet of water. For comparison, the 2023 flood inundated the downtown with three to four feet of water.
There are no easy answers for our small towns, which were built along rivers, but I am confident the residents of Montpelier will find a way forward. Events such as the bridge lighting show the town’s community spirit and provide hope.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Montpelier Is Lit | Hundreds gathered in the Capital City to celebrate the lighting of seven bridges”
This article appears in Dec 4-10, 2024.
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