The Days of Incandescence

Each fall, the small town of Corning returns to the year 1880 during The Days of Incandescence, a multi-day celebration taking place the last weekend in October inspired by Corning Flint Glass’s role making the special glass bulbs for Thomas Edison’s incandescent lamp and a mysterious young shop boy who blew the first bubble, spreading light across the world. This year’s celebration will take place from October 26th-28th and includes a themed libations crawl, a cemetery tour, guided historic walking tours, and a Celebration event in Riverfront Park on 10/28 (with live music, jack-o-lantern contest, juggling, various vendors, food, beer garden, a mysterious guest, and more). You may have heard told about the young inventor Thomas Edison who received a patent for his incandescent lamps on October 21st 1879. You may have even heard that Edison received a second patent in 1880. Or how, one night, he transformed an entire street into a spectacle of light. But have you heard the story of what happened next? Nearly a year to the day after that first patent was granted. Of a mysterious boy some believe was merely an apparition, a ghost. The boy who made it possible for those bamboo filaments to burn bright, for the light to spread around the globe, one magnificent bulb at a time. Have you heard The Legend of the Gathers? Those phantom folk who are said to return each year during The Days of Incandescence to make sure the light has found its way into the world?