Big events from Historic Hudson Valley are not just for October any more. Making its debut this May is LIGHTSCAPES, a brand new immersive experience featuring sculpture, light, sound, and special effects. It launches on Friday, May 2, and will run for 11 weekend evenings at historic Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson.
Ideal for all ages, LIGHTSCAPES is a walk-through, land-art experience. Visitors will enter through a rainbow and emerge from a bubbly haze into a dreamland of curiosities spread throughout an historic landscape. Recycled elements serve as eco-friendly building blocks for intergalactic flora and friendly woodland creatures. Otherworldly mushrooms, floating fairies, and beautiful butterflies are among the thousands of creations on-site. Path elements include an enormous walk-through caterpillar and a meandering butterfly maze. Larger-than-life elements like a massive praying mantis, a super-sized birdhouse, and a dino-sized egg join thousands of smaller sculptures — more than 7,500 in all — to create the tableau.
State-of-the-art illumination will highlight these works of art and showcase Van Cortlandt Manor’s natural landscape and specimen trees.
In the clear-top, decorated LIGHTSCAPES hospitality tent, visitors can enjoy spring-themed sweets including organic sorbet from Blue Pig of Croton and homemade candy and baked goods (plus savories!) from Geordane’s of Irvington.
LIGHTSCAPES takes place Friday and Saturday evenings in May and the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend: May 2-3, 9-10, 16-17, 23-25, 30-31. The first entry is 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. the final two
weekends).
LIGHTSCAPES takes place rain or shine and admission is by timed ticket only. Time slots and dates will sell out, so Historic Hudson Valley strongly recommends buying in advance online, where ticket prices are $16 for adults, $12 for children 3-17 and free for children under 3 and Historic Hudson Valley members. Those prices are $2 more on-site and over the phone. Van Cortlandt Manor is at 525 South Riverside Avenue in Croton-on-Hudson, NY, just off Route 9. Tickets and info: 914-366-6900. www.hudsonvalley.org.
LIGHTSCAPES is the latest large-scale public event from Historic Hudson Valley, the Tarrytown-based private, non-profit educational organization which owns and operates Van Cortlandt Manor and other historic sites; all proceeds support the organization’s education programs. The same team creates the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, which has gained national recognition and had a 2013 audience of more than 100,000 visitors.
You can find Historic Hudson Valley and #LIGHTSCAPES on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (username: HHValley), Instagram and YouTube (username: InTheValley1)
