Chris Wangro - Park & Circus as Real Immersion 19

iMMERSE! 19 Charley Morrow interviews Chris Wangro 

Today we talk with my long-time friend & co-conspirator in public events, Chris Wangro. We met through the New City Department of Parks, where he just had been hired as events coordinator. My colleagues and I at the New Wilderness Foundation were producing a summer solstice celebration in New York's Central Park. Chris had, at the time, the early 1980s, just returned from working in Europe with experimental rock band Henry Cow. We have continued to make things happen to the present-day.

Chris Wangro started out as the ringmaster of a one-man circus and rose to become the tzar of Special Events for the City of New York in the 1980s.

These days, he works as a Sought-After Public Space Strategist who pursues the improved design of public space, employing placemaking, community-building strategies that are enhanced by his PASSION FOR BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER IN JOYFUL, DYNAMIC, AND UNEXPECTED WAYS — all across the globe. He has produced countless prestigious events for audiences from intimate to massive including festivals, cultural programs, presidential summits, NASCAR rallies,  papal visits, Dolly Parton conerts, pachyderm parades and art festivities worldwide. The event we produced was broadcast internationally. 

Topics discussed: immersion, VR vs real immersion, the park as ultimate immersive experience, the circus as a tangible immersive experience, solstice events in Central Park, PT Barnum, concert hall vs informal space performance, immersive experiences are as old as mankind, what makes a good circus, magic tricks, experimental & political performance, live events & festivals, feeling the space, Olmstead, improv, homemade musical instruments, independent & noncorporate events.

Interview Transcript to Follow