It Wasn't Really That Cold (Or Was It?): Brite Winter 2024 #Brite2024

Enlarge Image

Our vision is to contribute to the Cleveland cultural landscape with a free/low cost, and accessible events during underserved times of the year, like winter; an event where anyone can experience our city through traditional and innovative activities. Brite Winter marries fire, participatory art, food, music, and games to build community while helping us embrace the cold winter months.

Fitting into the rest of the Cleveland calendar, we see Brite Winter as the premier Cleveland event between New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day and a showcase for Northeastern Ohio’s artists, musicians, and creative culture. We embrace our core values of positivity, community, creativity, artistic excellence, and accessibility.

A BIG thank-you to the Brite Winter leadership team, volunteers, sponsors/partners, and Ingenuity Cleveland Ingeneers for a great #Brite2024! Some of my family visited the event earlier in the day on Saturday, February 24, 2024. They reported that they had a great time seeing people they knew at the event, but said I should be prepared for the cold. I had also seen on Brite Winter's Facebook page the official #FluriForecast from Cleveland 19 News Chief Meteorologist Jason Nicholas -- it would be cold. When I arrived just before 8:00 pm, I heard several people comment on the cold.

To those who say that Brite Winter 2024 was cold, I just want to remind them of 10 years ago at Brite Winter 2014 -- it was "14° in 2014." (See my 2014 blog post: Cold Brite Winter & Hot Cavs Game.) FYI, the record high temperature was during Brite Winter 2017. (See my 2017 blog post: Hot in Cleveland: Brite Winter 2017.) Here is an image with this year's temperature of 25°F, followed by two images from my blog posts about the low and high temperatures from past Brite Winter events I attended.

Enlarge Images


   

I included the Brite Winter Vision Statement at the top of this blog post, since I really like it and wanted to remind readers of this blog post that part of the goal for this event is ". . . to build community while helping us embrace the cold winter months. . . . We embrace our core values of positivity, community, creativity, artistic excellence, and accessibility." Remembering to embrace the cold in a positive manner, and acknowledging that it was not really that cold for winter in Cleveland -- come on folks, it is a full 11 degrees warmer than Brite Winter 2014 -- I dressed for the weather and a great time at Brite Winter 2024!

 

 

Excited! I Have My #Brite2024 Ticket for Cleveland Winter Fun!

Enlarge Image

Brite Winter Know before you go!

When:

Saturday, February 24, 2024, 3:00 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
. . .

What:

Join us for the 15th Annual Brite Winter, with three outdoor stages, a heated art and performance tent, fire pits, local food and beverages, and a big party with your 10,000 best Cleveland friends! Our theme this year is Snapshot! giving us a chance to celebrate the memories we have made together for the last 15 years, and focus on the creation of new moments together.

Where:

Flats West Bank, in the Nautica lot. (2000 Sycamore Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44113) . . .

Who:

Brite Winter is for all ages! Kids under 12 get in FREE and can accompany their grown-ups into all ticketed spaces. Kids must be accompanied at all times.

Brite makes an effort to be more accessible to people with mobility impairments. We have accessible parking, restroom facilities, and viewing platform for the main stage.

Doggies are welcome! They must be leashed and you need to pick up their poop, of course, but we’d love to see your very good boys and girls at Brite.

When I arrived at Brite Winter 2024, I found that it was located further downhill than in previous years, and the festival grounds were all east of Main Avenue.

Enlarge Map of Brite Winter 2024
Festival Grounds

 

 

Performances - Clevelanders Dance Away the Cold into the Winter Night

Enlarge Image

I enjoyed the musical performances Saturday night! I think many people attending that night learned that it is not cold out in winter in Cleveland on a February night if you keep dancing the night away!

I hope you like my video of the performances that I saw. It will give you just a taste of the evening's music:

I HIGHLY recommend viewing this video of Brite Winter music in full screen mode and with the sound on!!
Please feel free to pause the video to read the stage schedule listing the performers.

 

Learn more about the 2024 lineup. Please note that this is a PDF of the Brite Winter 2024 music web page. Currently, you can click on the performers' photos for more details and videos:

• Brite Winter 2024 Lineup (20.9MB PDF file - opens in new browser window)

 

 

Art - Brite 15: Snapshot!

BRITE 15: SNAPSHOT! brings you a Fluri-filled journey through the memorable moments that make it pasted into scrapbooks and posted online, taped to fridges and tucked away in our minds…

The Ingeneers are a volunteer-driven creative collective, meeting year-round to vision, build and create. . . . Build art for our annual partnership with Brite Winter . . .

Saturday night, I enjoyed the creativity of the Ingenuity Cleveland Ingeneers, and the ice sculptures at #Brite2024! I met one of the Ingeneers after getting a video of him dancing with a brightly-lit, multicolored star (see my video below). He let me know that he was one of the people who helped make the HUGE Brite Winter 2024 cake to celebrate the 15th year of winter fun in Cleveland.

Here are my photos and videos of the evening. I hope, if you attended Brite Winter 2024, that they bring back fun memories -- I know that they do that for me. If you missed this fun Cleveland winter event, I hope they entice you to attend next year.

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

I recommend viewing videos in full screen mode.

 

It was great to catch up with Gennifer Harding-Gosnell during Brite Winter. She is the Audio Producer for Signal Cleveland -- "Launched in November 2022, Signal Cleveland is the inaugural newsroom in the Signal Ohio network of independent, community-led, nonprofit newsrooms." Here are two photos she shared on social media in which I appear -- first, her photo of me by the artificial-snow-making machine for "wintery selfies," and second, my photo of the two of us that she also shared. Thank you, Gennifer, for your kind words about my wife and me in your posts:

Enlarge Image

 

Enlarge Image

 

 

Thank You, Sponsors, Partners, and Brite Winter 2024 Leadership!

Thank you to the supporters shown in the following images, and to the 2024 Brite Winter Leadership Team, listed in the following attached PDF file:

• 2024 Brite Team (1.1MB PDF file - opens in new browser window)

Enlarge Image

Enlarge Image

Enlarge Image

 

 

What Others Say

I heard from my family members who attended Brite Winter earlier in the day that they talked to Cleveland Scene photographer Emanuel Wallace. Emanuel is the man to follow on social media to see the best photos of what is happening in town. Over the years, I have included links to many of his online slideshows from events that we both have attended and about which we have written blog posts/articles. (If you search my website for "Emanuel Wallace," you will see that he is mentioned in 44 of my blog posts!)

Be sure to see Emanuel's 10 pages of Brite Winter photos on the Cleveland Scene website, which includes a photo of my family members with their friends:

• Photos: In the Frigid Cold, Brite Winter Fest Celebrates Its Fifteenth Anniversary
  Monday, February 26, 2024, at 1:51 am. By Emanuel Wallace - Cleveland Scene

  For 15 years, Brite Winter Fest has been bringing live outdoor music to Cleveland in the dead of winter. Things were no different in 2024. Here's what we saw as Brite celebrated its 15th anniversary on the West Bank.

Enlarge Image

 

Here are more articles about what others say about Brite Winter 2024. The articles contain photos from the eventing and/or interesting information about the Brite Winter 2024 performances:

• Embrace Winter at Cleveland’s Outdoor Music Festival
  Brite Winter began in 2010 as a way to bring northeast Ohioans out for live music and interesting art and has become a February tradition in the city.
  JAN./FEB. 2024. BY LAUREN KEEP | PHOTO BY DAN SEGAL

• Cleveland’s Brite Winter to music and chill for 15th year on Feb. 24
  Fest set for West Bank of the Flats turns spotlight back to area acts
  PUBLISHED: February 19, 2024 at 2:22 p.m. | UPDATED: February 19, 2024 at 2:24 p.m. By John Benson

• Brite Winter Preview: 5 Bands to See in 2024
  Slated to be chilly, the Flats’ West Bank brings the heat on Feb. 24 with Cleveland’s rising stars in music, including Wanyama, the Monday Program, Cory Grinder and the Playboy Scouts, and more.
  February 21, 2024, 6:00 AM EST. By Julia Lombardo

• Music and weather combine for chills as Brite Winter celebrates 15 years of outdoor music (photos)
  February 25, 2024, at 9:01 AM. Story by Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com.

• Moments from Brite Winter 2024
  Brite Winter Festival 2024 returned for its 15th year to the Flats West Bank Saturday with three outdoor stages and two indoor areas with local DJs.
  February 25, 2024. Video from WJW - Cleveland (via Yahoo! News)

• Photos: Moments from Brite Winter Festival 2024
  February 25, 2024. By Celeste Houmard - WJW (via Yahoo! News)

 

 

2024 Britegoers Survey

Enlarge Image to Scan QR Code

2024 Britegoers Survey Survey respondents help Brite Winter continue to become better and better every year. Complete this survey with your email address and be entered to win one of the following:

1st prize: $50 gift certificate to Ninja City 2nd prize: $25 gift certificate to Ninja City

Results will be reported in the aggregate only. If you have any questions or concerns, email us at info@britewinter.com.

Thank you!

If you attended Brite Winter 2024, please use the 2024 Britegoers Survey (click here) to give the leadership feedback and praise for their outstanding work in bringing winter fun to Cleveland.

 

Related Blog Posts

I always like to end my blog posts with a list of related blog posts. I hope you explore some of the following that may interest you:

Here are my blog posts from past Brite Winters:

• Blog Date: March 3, 2022 - Cleveland Winter Fun: 10th Annual Cleveland Kurentovanje and 12th Annual Brite Winter #Brite2022

• Blog Date: March 2, 2020 - Fire, Art, Music, Games! Mid-Winter Outdoor Fun at Cleveland Brite Winter 2020! #Brite2020

• Blog Date: March 6, 2019 - Brite Winter 2019 -- #Brite10 -- Tenth Year of Cleveland Outdoor Winter Fun!
  Congratulations for the 10th year of this great Cleveland tradition taking place in the Cleveland Flats.

• Blog Date: April 8, 2018 - Brite Winter 2018 - #Brite18
  The 9th Annual event took place yet again on the west bank of the Cleveland Flats.

• Blog Date: February 27, 2017 - Hot in Cleveland: Brite Winter 2017
  The 8th Annual event took place again on the west bank of the Cleveland Flats and had record high temperatures.

• Blog Date: March 2, 2016 - Brite Winter 2016 - #Brite16
  Located on the west bank of the Cleveland Flats.

• Blog Date: March 2, 2015 - #IceFestCLE and Brite Winter - Cleveland Winter Outdoor Spectaculars
  The 6th Annual event took place again in Ohio City.

• Blog Date: March 26, 2014 - Cold Brite Winter & Hot Cavs Game
  14° in 2014! For our fourth year attending, we had great outdoor fun in the very cold in Ohio City, across from the West Side Market. In addition, we won a rare chance to see a Cleveland Cavaliers game from the owner's suite and from the floor box!!!

 

If you enjoyed seeing the many artistic displays at Brite Winter 2024 that were created by the Ingenuity Cleveland Ingeneers, then I would recommend taking a look at my 19 past Ingenuity Cleveland blog posts.

 

If you like outdoor winter activities, please also check out my Ice Fest blog posts:

• Blog Date: February 2, 2020 - 2020 Ice Festivals - North Coast Harbor and Lake Metroparks

• Blog Date: January 24, 2018 - 2018 North Coast Harbor Ice Fest and Free Martin Luther King, Jr., Day at Science Center and Rock Hall

• Blog Date: February 9, 2017 - 2017 North Coast Harbor Ice Fest and Free Martin Luther King, Jr., Day at Science Center and Rock Hall

• Blog Date: March 1, 2016 - Cleveland's North Coast Harbor Ice Fest 2016

• Blog Date: March 2, 2015 - #IceFestCLE and Brite Winter - Cleveland Winter Outdoor Spectaculars

 

Being able to attend Brite Winter 2024 had an added significance for me, since last year, I was feeling very ill as I entered 2023. I was very grateful to be able to attend this year! I wrote about my experiences a year ago in these two blog posts:

• Blog Date: March 8, 2023 - sosAssociates.com Blogiversary: Eleven
  
  See the section entitled: "January/February 2023 - The Blogs Not Written," where I wrote ". . . thank the organizers for improving the quality of life in Cleveland and Akron by planning the events, and to let them know I really missed attending them in 2023!"

• Blog Date: June 11, 2023 - My Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Part One: Diagnosis & Medication

  As I started 2023, symptoms caused by my hypertrophic cardiomyopathy had radically changed my life to the point that I wrote in my March 8, 2023, sosAssociates.com Blogiversary: Eleven blog post about the events I missed, instead of my normal blogging about the many that I would attend.

 

Congratulations, Brite Winter, on a successful event for your 15th incredible year. I look forward to attending your 16th year in 2025, and more beyond.