Costumed performers blanketed the Tribeca section of Hudson River Park Saturday afternoon for the Dance of the River Grasses, above, as part of Earth Celebrations’ Hudson River Pageant.
The five-hour pageant started at the Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center and paraded through the park up to Gansevoort St. with 15-foot puppets of river species, stopping along the way for performance art pieces, a live fish release and a river cleansing ceremony. Felicia Young, founder of Earth Celebrations, launched the lavish pageant to restore the Hudson River and draw attention to climate change, particularly during the 400-year anniversary of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the river.
Dozens of local organizations volunteered and helped fund the event, and hundreds turned out to sing, dance and plant oysters. The festivities culminated in a flotilla of decorated rowboats and kayaks doing a dance in the Hudson choreographed to a river chant.
