Thank you to our 2024 WaterFire Season Supporters for helping to keep the fires burning.
The 2024 WaterFire season currently includes six (6) full lightings and two (2) partial lightings. The 2024 WaterFire Season will kick off with a wall lighting in Memorial Park in coordination with the scheduled release with the first full lighting to follow on Saturday, June 1st. Community favorite events including, honoring Rhode Island Educators, Breast Cancer Survivors, and Rhode Island Veterans will return in 2024 and bring our friends and neighbors together to learn from and celebrate with each other. Additional lightings may be added to the schedule as funding becomes available.
Want to learn more about our 2024 season and what we’ve got planned? Send us a text: (401) 399-4460. You can also stay up-to-date by following us on social media on Instagram: @WaterFireProv and @WaterFireArtsCenter and Facebook: WaterFire Providence and WaterFire Arts Center.
2024 WaterFire Season Schedule
Thursday, April 18
Partial Lighting, Memorial Park
Sunset (7:30 pm) – 9:30 pm
WaterFire Day – Season Schedule Announcement
Celebrate by Dining Out in Providence
Saturday, May 11th
Partial Lighting in Waterplace Basin
Sunset (7:55 pm) – 10:00 pm
Supported by Always Learning Rhode Island in celebration of Learn365RI
Saturday, June 1st
Full Lighting
Sunset (8:14 pm) – Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:30 pm
Thursday, July 4th
Full Lighting
Sunset (8:24 pm) – Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:30 pm
Tuesday, July 30th
Partial Lighting in Waterplace Basin
Sunset (8:05 pm) – 10:00 pm
Supported by American Association for State Compensation Insurance Fund (AASCIF) Annual Conference
Saturday, August 31st
Full Lighting
Sunset (7:07 pm) – Midnight
Onshore programming and vendors open at 6:00 pm
Saturday, September 21st
Full Lighting
Sunset (6:43 pm) – 11:00 pm
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:30 pm
Saturday, October 5th
Full Lighting
Sunset (6:19 pm)- 11:00 pm
Onshore programming and vendors open at 5:00 pm
Saturday, November 2nd
Full Lighting
Sunset (5:38 pm) – 10:00 pm
Onshore programming and vendors open at 4:30 pm
Your support of WaterFire Providence is more vital now than ever!
This page is the most up-to-date event schedule resource.
- 2024 WaterFire Season Schedule Printable Version
- Get the 2024 WaterFire Season Schedule in iCal format.
- Stay tuned! Thank you for your ongoing support.
- Full? Partial? Basin? What’s the difference?
Learn more:
- WaterFire Arts Center Events
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Prior Year’s WaterFire Schedules
- Sponsorship Opportunities
- About WaterFire
Celebrate at WaterFire
Proposals, anniversaries, date nights. Make memories at WaterFire.
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2024 WaterFire Lightings
Thanks to our 2024 WaterFire Season Supporters
State of Rhode Island, Governor Daniel J. McKee; Rhode Island Commerce; The City of Providence, Mayor Brett Smiley; The Providence City Council; The Rhode Island General Assembly; Representative Scott A. Slater; Providence Tourism Council; Rhode Island State Council of the Arts; Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau; Always Learning Rhode Island in celebration of Learn365RI; American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds;Amica Insurance; Bank of America; Cox Business; Dunkin’; Fidelity Investments; Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Resource Foundation; Manchester Street Station; Rhode Island Department of Education; Rhode Island School of Design; RI Energy; Textron Charitable Trust; Cox Media; Cumulus Media; iHeartMedia, Inc.; Rhode Island Monthly;The Providence Journal; WPRI 12 & FOX Providence & The Rhode Show; AJT Supplies; Cirque De Light;Escape Rhode Island; Fire Works Catering; Gooseneck Vineyards; McLaughlin & Moran; Ocean State Rental; R1 Indoor Karting Entertainment Center; Stanley Tree Service, Inc; and United Site Services Northeast.
WaterFire Lighting Lingo Explained
Full WaterFire Lightings light up over eighty braziers from Waterplace Park to Memorial/South Main Street Park on scheduled evenings throughout the season. Lighting occurs shortly after sunset and the fires will remain lit until midnight (unless otherwise noted). Full lightings include onshore programming such as performance stages, art and food vendors, and the Starry, Starry Night installation in Memorial Park.
Basin Lightings include the circle of twenty-two braziers in the Waterplace Park Basin and the eight braziers leading up to the Providence Place Mall.
Partial Lightings can include braziers in any section of the river. Examples include a Memoria Park Lighting which would include the 12 wall-mounted braziers in Memorial Park or a “Basin to Steeple Street” lighting which would include all the braziers in Waterplace Park as well as the braziers in the two downstream sections of the installations ending at the Steeple Street Bridge. Typically Basin and Partial lightings of WaterFire do not include onshore programming or food vendors unless otherwise noted.
As support and sponsorships develop, WaterFire will announce additional lightings and programming – check back for updates here and on our Facebook page and Twitter account.
You can help us keep the fires burning by making a donation to keep the fires burning, joining the Brazier Society of WaterFire Providence, or becoming a WaterFire Sponsor.
WaterFire Providence’s Plan Your Trip to Providence web page is the #1 resource for up-to-date details about the event, transportation, parking, hotels, restaurants, and other local attractions.
Each year WaterFire attracts nearly 1 million visitors to downtown Providence to experience art in the city. Annually, WaterFire activity creates $149 million in economic output for local businesses, generates over $9 million of tax revenue for the State of Rhode Island, and supports 1,294 jobs for community residents.
Fire marshal regulations do not permit folding chairs to be set up on any of the riverwalks to ensure safe passage for all of our visitors. WaterFire is an event to be explored and savored on foot as you wander around to discover its many surprises, leave your chairs in the car, and start exploring all that our event has to offer.
I am trying to plan a trip to Providence this spring. Is there a date for a “main event” for Water/Fire? I want to optimize the experience for myself and my friends. I first heard about Water/Fire Providence RI from YANKEE on PBS and new I right away I had to see it in person!
Hi Jenda, depends on when in the Spring you plan to visit. We’re planning to a few smaller events in April and May with our first Full Lighting of the season on June 1 (RISD Commencement). At this time we do not have any event dates fully confirmed. Thank you for your support and patience.
Do you have the September dates planned for 2024 yet. When do you anticipate releasing the schedule
Hi Jessica, the 2024 season will be announced on April 18th at WaterFire Day!
Will there be an event the weekend of May 18th?
Hi Dana, we do not have an event planned for that date.
All the best, Tim
Could you do an event Memorial Day Weekend for Brown’s commencement?
Hi Abby,
Good question. The short answer is “it depends.”
The longer answer is that most of the time our event schedule is determined by factors that we don’t totally control. Each year we start our season schedule by first looking at tide charts and identifying all of the “good” dates for a WaterFire lighting. Due to the tidal nature of the Providence river we need high tides between certain levels to accommodate our fire tending boats, both to set up the event and then light/feed the fires from sunset until the end of the event. We then take that list of good dates and working with sponsors and partners we identify funding sources that will pay for each event.
So we can only produce a WaterFire lighting on a certain date if both the tides/weather and funding sources line up.
For many years the Memorial Day weekend had been the unofficial start of WaterFire season, but in that past few years we haven’t secured funding for an event that weekend. We won’t have all of our 2024 season schedule confirmed until we announce our schedule on April 18th on WaterFire Day, but right now it does not look like we’ll be doing a lighting that weekend.
Looking to plan a weekend in august would it be assumed event for weekends then?
Hi Glori, yes Full Lightings are typically on Saturdays. We’re likely to have one or two lightings in August.
Please send me the 2024 schedule for the waterfire in Providence
Thank you.
Hi Louise, the 2024 season schedule will be announce on Thursday, April 18 at WaterFire Day. You can sign up for a our newsletter or stay tuned to this space for details.
Any dates for June 2024 yet? I’ll be up with my grandkids 6/4-17 and would love for them to experience it!
Not yet. Stay tuned! See our note at the top of the page regarding the schedule announcement.
How about May 11? anything going on at waterfire??
We’re looking a doing a Basin Lighting on the 11th. It will be in partnership with the “Learn 365 RI” convention.
Waiting to hear more about 5/11 Waterfire event! Have family coming in and the next day is Mothers’ Day!
Exciting! Details for this and our other scheduled lightings will be posted on April 18th.
Any shows April 30 or May 1
We do not have anything planned for those dates at this time.
Will WaterFire be available the week of April 20 to April ? We are coming for the week. Thanks so much
Hi Roberta, unfortunately we do not events schedule that week.
I get your texts and I just got the 2024 schedule. How do I tell whether the kayaks will be parading, like they were in August of 2022?
Thanks, and I hope you have a wonderful season.
Kate
Hi Kate, we’re still working to confirm that date. Stay tuned!