The Great Chicago Fire Festival Effigies Are Still Waiting To Be Torched

By Chuck Sudo in News on Oct 20, 2014 8:30PM

The inaugural Great Chicago Fire Festival made headlines a couple weeks back for what couldn’t be set afire in the cold wet downtown gloom along the Chicago River. Anticipation gave way to a growing chorus of “that’s it” and we wondered what would happen to the effigies anchored along the river.

Turned out they were towed a couple miles south to a temporary location in Bridgeport. Redmoon publicist Eric Eatherly told Chicagoist the location of the effigies is the former home of Crowley’s Yacht Yard, along the south branch of the river separating Bridgeport and Pilsen and steps from the Halsted Street Orange Line station. This yard is also slated to be the future home of a controversial heliport that has locals in an uproar over the possible noise issues that would arise. (The Chicago Plan Commission approved the heliport plan in March.)

You can see from the images above that Redmoon staffers tried their damnedest to set these contraptions aflame. There are some smoke and scorch marks on the structures indicating the fires tried and failed to take hold. Eatherly said these structures will eventually be broken down and repurposed for next year’s Great Chicago Fire Festival where, hopefully, the effigies will burn faster than tissue.