Labor Day Weekend was full of city celebrations that are well-known and much-loved entities, including the 34^th Annual Detroit Jazz Festival down at the Detroit riverfront; the Hamtramck Street Festival presenting its usual mishmash of Polish nationalism and American carnivalism (not to mention Elvis impersonators); and “Oakland County’s favorite summer festival,” Arts, Beats, and Eats made its yearly descent upon downtown Royal Oak (this year featuring a performance by MC Hammer, who hopefully did not hurt ’em). Plenty of low-hanging fruit for holiday weekend fun, but around the fringes there were some really interesting alternatives, in the form of lesser-known celebrations of culture.

It was a crazy scene Saturday night down at the Lincoln Street Art Park and Sculpture Garden.

On Saturday, August 31st, Lincoln Street Art Park hosted an event that fell somewhere between rave, art installation and hobo party. The pallet-fueled fire pit set against the railroad tracks was a necessary feature as the weather transitions quickly into fall, and all over the site, the park’s permanent sculptures were augmented with light- or sound-based installations in shipping containers, makeshift sheet-yurts, and a rooftop station that was the roosting place for a giant floating piece of Styrofoam that was rumored to be slated for a flaming passage along a zipline over the party (though I didn’t see that go down while I was there).

Experimental music below, strange UFOs above.

Performances, including one by the Space Band, took place in shipping containers and open air stages.

The event was singular and other-worldly, and bears all the earmarks of the Recycle Here crew, which operates out of the adjacent warehouse facility around the corner on Holden Street. Whether this is a herald of oddball refuse-based events to come remains a mystery for now, but I, for one, hope to see more celebrations of its kind in the future.

Ain’t no party like a hobo party.