With cultural celebrations all across Central Florida facing serious threats to their financial viability, it’s reassuring indeed to see a fondly remembered event from not too long ago making a comeback. And to take in the full magnitude of that phoenix-like resurrection, all you’ll have to do is walk through Downtown Orlando in February and have a good look around.
After an absence of three years, the multimedia extravaganza known as “Immerse” will return to the streets of our urban core, taking over 10 outdoor blocks for a weekend’s worth of brightly illuminated visual spectacles, cutting-edge art installations, interactive exhibitions, musical performances, ethnic celebrations and food galore.
Immerse will be a free, al fresco display of visual stimulation and creative innovation that’s designed to have something going on everywhere you look, and at almost every moment. (Old-timers might describe it as a more diverse, artistically ambitious successor to the Light Up Orlando weekends of the late 1980s.)
First presented—in an embryonic form, at least—in 2012, Immerse fairly swiftly became a staple on the fall calendar. But the COVID-19 era wasn’t exactly conducive to gatherings that tended to bring strangers together in close quarters by the tens of thousands.
For a few years, founding impresario Cole NeSmith concentrated on other projects that were less likely to be associated with the phrase “super spreader.” Now that the environment is more amenable, however, Immerse is slated to re-emerge with a new winter timeframe and a fresh lineup of performers and exhibitors who are ready to show off just how much magic local talent can wring out of the raw materials of sight, sound and motion.
This year’s event will span the length of Orange Avenue from Central Boulevard to Anderson Street, with four outdoor stages set up at PineStreet, Church Street, CMX Cinemas Plaza Café 12 and Seneff Arts Plaza fronting Dr. Phillips Center. What’s more, a handful of installations will carry the Immerse ethos to an even wider audience by remaining on view throughout the entire month. Among them will be colorful lighting displays sponsored by OUCand AdventHealth and “Big City Birds,” journalist/artist Brendan O’Connor’s flock of oversized neon pigeon sculptures that were first seen perching on downtown roofs and overhangs last August.
Immerse is a production of NeSmith’s Creative City Project, for which he works pro bono as artistic director. At the same time, he’s chief creative officer of the Memoir Agency, which manages the setup and strike of some of the featured installations. That’s pretty impressive for somebody who started out as a simple busking musician with an interest in seeing how much homegrown artistry he could bring out of the shadows and onto the sidewalks. Now that he has found out, he seems determined to keep it there: NeSmith has laid the groundwork for Immerse redux by securing funding from the City of Orlando that should keep the festival on the books for the next five years—at least.
If the lights ever go down on Orange Avenue, it’s highly doubtful that NeSmith will be the one pulling the plug. For more information, visit the website at www.immersefest.com.
