'Blue Bayou' celebrates park opening tonight

So here's a civic project to get excited about: Tonight, Buffalo Bayou Partnership will host "Blue Bayou," a party to celebrate the opening of the Sabine to Bagby Promenade, a new park along Buffalo Bayou from downtown to the Sabine Street Bridge. The $15 million park — which doubles as a flood-control project — includes 2 miles of hike and bike trails linking the Allen Parkway/Memorial Drive trails with Sesquicentennial Park, 12 new street-to-bayou stairways and ramps, fancy landscaping, art and a pedestrian bridge over the bayou behind the Hobby Center. We've checked it out, and believe us, it's nice.

One of the things we're most interested in is the park's lighting system, designed by artist Stephen Korns of Massachusetts and L’Observatoire, a New York lighting firm. From what we understand, all the lights in the park — lamps along the trails, spotlights on the water and floodlights under the bridges — will change from blue to white along with the phases of the moon. To let the Chronicle explain it:

The lighting system features glowing orbs that will be white when the moon is full and, moving east to west, progressively change to blue as the moon goes through its phases. The lights will be all blue when the new moon appears, and the pattern will reverse itself for the remainder of the lunar cycle.

We'll wait and see how that works out. In the meantime, here's the skinny on tonight's party, which is free and open to all Houstonians:

• The party starts at 7 p.m. and goes to midnight. Highlights: live music, food and drinks, entertainers and bayou boat rides.

• There's also going to be a floating cinema — three nature films projected on a floating screen that will span the bayou. The selections, from curators Diane Shamash of Minetta Brook in NYC and Andrea Grover of Houston's Aurora Picture Show, are Two Rivers by Peter Hutton, Ten Skies by James Benning and Sunset by Andy Warhol.

• And what would a party be without fireworks? The show will start at 9 p.m. Think of it as a warm-up for the Fourth of July.

You can check the event's website for parking info and a map of the park. See you there!

Photo from flickr user elmhouston