By Kat Bryant

Grays Harbor News Group

Aberdeen’s Rain Glow Festival lit up the streets on Saturday with art, lasers and even some history.

The event drew more than 1,500 people downtown, with ticket sales of about $4,000 to go toward construction of a pocket park for the city’s Senior Center.

Rain Glow is the brainchild of local artist Douglas Orr, owner of the Aberdeen Art Center, who put the whole thing together in just four months with help from numerous volunteers and businesses.

“The turnout blew me away. I couldn’t keep the tears from falling,” he said. “I had expectations of a few hundred.”

Several “glow worlds” were created for visitors to experience, including a student-created undersea tableau and an illuminated balloon display. Along two blocks of K Street, vendors offered sand dollars decorated with glow-in-the-dark paint, henna tattoos, food and various other wares. A continuous laser light show was set to recorded dance music at the north end of the festival, while acoustic musicians played at the south end.

Justin the Circler was in constant motion in the alley between K and Broadway, using lighted rods to create chalk art on the concrete. The Grays Harbor Belly Dancers performed in the Goldberg building and later in the street with the horde of attendees. And Vancouver painter Adam Hesse worked on one of his surrealist pieces as visitors looked on.

In the old Goldberg’s building on Market Street, the Sweeping Beautys displayed dozens of colorful entries in their ADoor Project and invited visitors to vote for the best. The brightly painted doors will be displayed in downtown windows for the rest of this month.

And at the Hotel Morck, the Friends of the Aberdeen Museum of History gave visitors a guided tour of what the venue was like in its heyday in the 1920s. The building has sat vacant for decades, but was opened to the public for the first time — with plenty of safeguards in place — for this event.

“It was wonderful to see how much everyone enjoyed taking a brief walk back in time and getting a glimpse of Aberdeen history,” said Friends member Becky Carossino.

Photos by Kat Bryant | Grays Harbor News Group Nancy Cuyle, left, and Becky Carossino of the Friends of the Aberdeen Museum dressed up in 1920s style to give tours of the historic Morck Hotel during the event.

Attendees went all out to create brightly colored and illuminated costumes for the festival.

Wil Russoul and wife Kristi Daniels enjoyed one of the “step-in” costumes set up along K Street.