One Event Two Ways

I got some great responses to my post yesterday about Opus. Two stand out. From Philip Dodge, Executive Director of Downtown Columbia Partnership:

Good morning - I saw your blog post re: OPUS. Here's my response.

Short version: Yes. You should attend.

Long version: We're trying to explain that while OPUS is cutting edge and brings artists from all over the world to Columbia, it isn’t intimidating and it has something for everyone.

OPUS provides a forest-full of opportunities for discovery, including seven new commissions and an array of dynamic art installations and stages spread across the entire fifty acres of Symphony Woods.

It’s like visiting the MoMA, Guggenheim, Bilbao, and Venice Biennale all in your back yard:

• Explore the wonders of art, technology, and music
• Dance under a piano drum canopy
• Walk inside a laser cathedral
• Taste your way through the expanded Culinary Village
• Bask in a soul cleansing bath of color
• Behold a sixteen foot tall talking owl

From blogger Frank Hecker:

For maximum enjoyment it helps to understand what Opus actually is: it's an all-ages avant garde art and music event: they take a sampling of trendy artists from NYC and elsewhere and bring them to Columbia for a day. If you like that sort of thing (or are open to liking it) then you will have fun at Opus. Otherwise, not so much. Me, I thought it was great last year and am looking forward to this year.

Forgot to add: the target audience for Opus isn't really Columbians, it's hipsters from DC and Baltimore--basically the sort of people Howard Hughes is trying to attract to live and (especially) work in the Merriweather District. It's a signal to prospective office tenants who have relatively young workforces and are concerned their employees won't want to work in the middle of suburbia.

So, knowing all that, what do you think? Avant garde music festival? Walk-through special effects party experience? It sounds like there’s more than one way to approach the event.

One unifying theme is a sincere hope that the weather will stop being a party pooper and cut it out with the continuous drenching we’ve been getting.