GREENWICH VILLAGE — Nighttime pedestrians along Sixth Avenue may have noticed that Father Demo Square, the plaza at the crossroads of Carmine and Bleecker streets, is sparkling.
The lights were put up by the stunt group Improv Everywhere, as part of their annual holiday performance. This year's was funded by Target, and featured models of the company's holiday "wonderpacks," boxes "filled with everything you need to create an experience."
Creating an experience is Improv Everywhere's specialty, and they produced a video of the one they masterminded at Father Demo Square.
The group propped up a giant light switch at the mouth of the park, and had performers in the park covered in lights, who froze anytime a passerby flipped the switch. They periodically covered the switch up with a tarp and then uncovered it so it could be discovered by new people who hadn't yet seen the lights go on. (The full backstory on how it all happened can be read on their website.)
David Gruber, a local resident and the head of Friends of Father Demo Square, was struck by the beauty of the lights, and asked the organizers if they'd leave them. They agreed, he said, and he got the Parks Department to rig up the lights to the power used for the fountain (inactive during the winter), in the absence of Target's generator trucks.
"It was a job," Gruber said. "It was definitely a job."
Gruber said he's not sure exactly how long the lights will stay up.
"Until the leaves come, I hope," he said. "February or so."
