by Kirby Lindsay, posted 25 November 2011
On Friday, December 2nd, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce will kick-off the holiday shopping season – and the First Friday Art Walk – with its traditional, family-focused, community-based lighting of the statue of Lenin.
Starting at 5p, the hour long celebration features live music (by our own Fremont Philharmonic,) a Christmas carol sing-along (with the children of Our Beginning,) treats (provided by Mighty O Donuts, Pie and PCC Natural Market,) and a visit by the Fremont Santa – plus a flip of the switch to illuminate a headdress upon the stern, bronzed countenance of Vladimir Illyich Lenin.
Fully Fremont Festivities
The Lenin statue, created by Emil Venkov, came to Fremont as a temporary exhibit in Fremont in 1995. Decorating the statue started in 2004, after corporate funding of a very conservative, very traditional tree lighting in Solstice Plaza dried up. A group of local business people sought a cheaper – and easier – celebration and rigged lights on the 16 foot tall statue.
The lighting design has changed along with the volunteers. They’ve strung the lights in straight lines from the crown of his head, making the statue look like a tree when lit at night, but like Lenin sat in jail during daylight hours. Another year, the lights were strung haphazardly around him like a badly trussed turkey. When wind and/or vandals destroyed the lights a few years in a row, the decision was made to place lights above the shoulder line of the statue.
Lenin Lighting, The Celebration
Each year the crowd grows, for seriously, who doesn’t want start their holiday season by lighting up a dead dictator? The businesses that surround the statue certainly welcome all who come. Jai Shu, the owner of Royal Grinders sandwich and gelato shop, believes 2010 saw the largest crowd yet.
“I like the Lenin Lighting, for sure,” he insisted, although he’s chosen not to offer free cocoa this year after some visitors last year ill-treated his staff and left a huge mess. Still, he said, “it brings a lot of people here to take pictures,” and he enjoys seeing the kids.
Katie Carson, owner of Bitters Co home furnishing store, admitted, “I liked the lighting of the Christmas tree,” on the plaza. Still, Lenin Lighting, “it’s part of the convivial neighborhood spirit,” she said, “it’s nice that we have a warm-spirited event. I’m all for anything that ramps up the family feeling of the neighborhood.” She also appreciates efforts to install holiday lights on many of the commercial buildings by property owners Mike Peck and Brian Regan.
Regan admitted he still has a few more buildings to light up, and he said the tower crane, that stands sentry at his newest development project at North 35th Street and Evanston Avenue North, “will be all lit up!” He also plans to re-install the star on his building at North 35th Street and Fremont Avenue North, (the Yak’s building,) and provide the star-shaped, lighted crown for Lenin. “It is just all in good fun,” Regan remarked, “in the theme of spoofing on Lenin.”
As Juliette Delfs, co-owner of Hub And Bespoke clothing boutique for cyclists, said, “it’s nice that people get in the spirit,” of the celebration, “and understand,” she explained, that we’re not celebrating a horrible tyrant.
Lenin, The Statue
Delfs opened her store in May 2010, and has only experienced one lighting so far – during which she hosted a gathering in her store. This year her party will start after the lighting, as she participates in the Art Walk.
“Lenin points the way to me,” she mentioned of the statue, and her shop. She acknowledged that she didn’t mind his proximity when she chose her location. After all, she said, she’d lived in Seattle and, “I knew ‘it’s Fremont.’”
The statue originally brought some feelings of rancor, dismay and anger with it to Fremont, but it now seems to have been accepted by businesses that surround it. “I have a few Eastern European customers who don’t get the kitsch of it,” Delfs reported, “I try to be sensitive.” Ultimately, though, she joked, “I don’t have to apologize for him very often.”
Businesses that have spent the longest with the sculpture seem inclined to find it “hilarious,” a word used by both Carson and Regan. Carson began Bitters 18 years ago, on November 1st, and admitted, “it’s culturally challenging for some customers,” but also, “it attracts a humongous number of people, due to the political nature.”
Still, the statue’s notoriety appears to have waned. Lori Mason, owner of e.t.g. coffeeshop (Fremont’s first, which opened in 1982) frankly admitted, “I don’t ever care or think about it.” Although within throwing distance of Lenin, Mason finds it easy to forget his controversy – and the celebration, since her shop closes before it starts, and, “I’m usually at home having dinner by then.”
This year, delay dinner – or grab a grinder – and come see in the season and Art Walk as our tyrant in bronze gets lit, Fremont-style. To find out where to go after the lighting, visit the Fremont Friday Art Walk web page, but be sure to be at Red Triangle at 5p for the lighting – and the annual visit by the Fremont Santa!
Related Articles
- My Love/Hate Affair With Lenin (NOT Stalin)
- by Kirby Lindsay, December 2, 2009
- Lighting Up Lenin
- by Kirby Lindsay, December 1, 2004 in the North Seattle Herald-Outlook
©2011 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.