Beloved Hartford Arts Tradition Night Fall Returns to Bushnell Park

Night Fall, Hartford’s annual community celebration of art, music, dance, nature, and seasonal change, returns to Bushnell Park for the third time in its 12-year history on Saturday, October 7, at 6 pm. This free outdoor performance features multi-talented artists and performers drawn from the Hartford region as well as eye-popping costumes, masks, and giant puppets. 

Night Fall was created to celebrate the city’s public park system and neighborhoods by rotating its annual presentation to parks throughout the city. Now created and produced through a fully collaborative artistic model, this year’s production will be presented on the Performance Pavilion stage near the Corning Fountain area of Bushnell Park (adjacent to Asylum Street). Centered in Night Fall’s commitment to activate the arts and Hartford’s parks as welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and joyful gathering places, Night Fall is free and open to all. For more information, visit NightFallHartford.org. The rain date is Sunday, October 8, at 6 pm.

Focusing on the change of seasons and the many talents of its collaborative team, Night Fall takes the audience on a visual and musical journey. The show features dancers and actors appearing as a variety of animals, magical beings, and other characters in scenes that reflect multiple community stories. Although the script and the production change from year to year, each Night Fall performance culminates with a lantern procession and the arrival of the majestic Solstice puppet.

The fun begins at 2 pm for guests to enjoy vendors, community organizations, art-making, and food trucks. Attendees should bring blankets and lawn chairs with picnicking encouraged. As part of Night Fall’s commitment to sustainability and accessibility, audiences are urged to use multimodal transportation to travel to the show including walking, scooting, riding a CT Transit bus or a CT Rail train, carpooling, or cycling, with a monitored Bike Valet service on offer at the event. Parking is available near the park and on surrounding streets, as well as downtown pay lots and garages.

Night Fall’s audience services team is in need of community volunteers to assist on the day of the show. Bilingual volunteers are particularly welcome, including folks who are fluent in American Sign Language. Positions include ushers, greeters, accessibility volunteers, Night Fall merchandise sellers, lantern bearers for the finale, and more. Contact Night Fall Volunteer Coordinator Xiang Cai at volunteer@nightfallhartford.org to express interest.

Night Fall 2023 has been envisioned by the Night Fall Artistic Collaboration, a group of directors, choreographers, theater-makers, writers, and musicians. The show has been conceived, written, and directed through the collaboration of artists including Dejé Bennett, Devé-Ann Bennett, Casey Grambo, Kyle Grimm, Greg Ludovici, Loren Milledge, Julia Pistell, and Ym Myla Neaj. Music, story and choreography are all original. Night Fall's colorful costumes, masks, and giant puppets are created by Anne Cubberly and other fabricators in her studio. Steve Mitchell serves as technical director with Cherokee Cowherd acting as stage manager.

The cast includes both new faces and returning artists, including Dejé Bennett, Deve-Ann Bennett, Gin Christie, Loren Denise, Gianna DiMaiolo, Jonathan Domenech, C.S. Dunn, Amanda Duvall, Chantal Edwards-Matthews, Tianna Glass-Tripp, Jakar "WizDom" Hankerson, Matthew Benjamin Horowitz, Tatiana Johnson, Savana Jones, Samone Jones-McCarthy, Kunzika, Greg Ludovici, Stephanie Moreland, Brianna Navedo, Ym Myla Neaj, Erica Nelson, Julia Pistell, Jason Ramos, Jonathan Rincon, Jessie Robbie, Akira Rodriguez, Julie Sawtelles, Claire Sickinger, Hannah Simms, and Brian Syms. The collaborating artists and performers in Night Fall are all paid a fair wage for their time and talents.

Night Fall is made possible with generous support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts; Connecticut Humanities; The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation; Vermont Community Foundation; the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the MorningStar Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Flying Ram Farm Foundation, and Greater Hartford’s community of neighbors and small business owners. To donate to Night Fall, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, please visit nightfallhartford.org.

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