Melissa Ross
It’s perhaps a fitting metaphor for the world’s largest crowdfunding festival.
Just hours before Tuesday’s opening ceremony begins for One Spark in downtown Jacksonville, a giant shark will splash its way into the fountain at Hemming Park. For the third year in a row, the Enlivened Spaces class at UNF has created a massive sculpture in conjunction with art activist Wayne Wood to float in the park’s pool during the festival.
Spark Attack will make its way across town with much fanfare on Tuesday, as it’s first loaded onto a trailer at the UNF campus, then heads up I-95 and into the city’s urban core.
The annual UNF sculpture creation has become an icon of the rapidly growing festival. Last year it was a huge orange goldfish cracker, A.K.A. Sergeant Crackers. One Spark’s inaugural year featured a giant yellow duck, Colonel Quackers.
And of course, the political animals will be much in evidence this week as well on the streets of downtown Jacksonville.
For incumbent Mayor Alvin Brown, One Spark, and its massive crowds, provide a chance to make the case that his commitment to downtown Jacksonville’s rebirth is working.
For challenger Lenny Curry, One Spark is a can’t-miss opportunity to keep introducing himself to voters and press his narrative that a change in leadership is needed.
For both sheriff’s office contenders Ken Jefferson and Mike Williams, along with a slew of city council candidates, the festival will provide endless meet-and-greet opportunities.
Because although the “World’s Largest Crowdfunding Festival” is officially about the 555 projects vying for exposure, money, and jurors’ votes — full disclosure: I’m a One Spark juror this year — any politician who knows how to press the flesh can see the event’s other big advantages.
“With the crowds that are expected, this is a unique opportunity for candidates to try to engage with potential voters,” said investment banker and man-about-town Abel Harding, former spokesman for Brown and a One Spark board member. “In all likelihood, there will be a large number of attendees at the event who did not vote in the First Election. And this affords candidates an opportunity to try to engage these voters before May.”
The festival’s political overtones aren’t lost on the event’s organizers, either.
“One Spark attendees are a cross-section of Jacksonville residents, and there’s no better place to connect with both average Joes and movers and shakers,” said Meredith O’Malley Johnson, festival community and public relations director.
