By Kim Kalunian, WPRO News
As a kid, what better fun was there on a hot summer day than donning a swimsuit, setting up the Slip and Slide and spending the afternoon speeding down the water-soaked runway?
Well, imagine doing the same thing as an adult, only the slide is the length of three football fields and thousands of other people are joining in the reverie.
That’s the vision of Slide the City, the company that wants to turn downtown Providence into a temporary waterpark.
“Slide the City is a 1,000-foot water slide down a city street,” said Brad Behle, Slide the City’s event director. “We all grew up with slip and slides in our backyard, we’ve just taken it to the next level.”
The Salt Lake City-based company launched their first slip and slide event in their hometown a year and a half ago and has since held events in places like Florida and Arizona. An upcoming event in Raleigh, North Carolina sold out in six days, which is particularly impressive considering they can sell up to 5,000 tickets.
“It just brings the inner kid out of everyone,” said Behle.
Slide the City looks for a sloping city street, gets the permits to close it for a day, and lays down a larger-than-life slip and slide. Folks in bikinis and swim trunks can careen down the normally busy thoroughfares on inner-tubes.
Water conservation is on their radar, too. According to Slide the City’s website, the slide is designed to have zero water loss and treats and recycles the water throughout the day. The company says they donate the water back to the community when they can, or else dispose of it at parks or golf courses.
With events coming up in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Texas, the company has plans to bring the event to New England, and already has an event planned for Holyoke, Mass. on August 22. They’ve also got a Slide the City event scheduled in Stamford on July 26. Behle said they’re close to finalizing a Slide the City event in Boston, and Rhode Island is on their radar as well.
“We’re looking at Providence,” Behle said. “The city wanted to hold off…there’s a lot of construction going on…they wanted to see if possibly 2016 would be a better time slot for it.”
Behle said they’ve been looking at maps to try and figure out where in the city they would set up, but haven’t decided on a precise location yet. Imagine sliding down College Hill, making a splash near the State House on Smith Hill or zooming under the famous pignoli nut on Federal Hill.
If you’re worried about potholes, don’t: Behle said they lay down a thick padding made of foam to prevent any injuries.
“No skinned knees, no hitting pebbles in the road, it’s actually really soft,” he said.
Slide the City events are one-day-only affairs. A team arrives early in the morning to set up the slide, and the event usually runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. In that time, Behle said they can accommodate between three- and five-thousand sliders.
Sliders have three ticket options that range from $15 to $50. The base ticket is a single-slide option, then there’s a mid-range, three-slide option. The most expensive tickets get you unlimited slides, plus an hour in the morning and an hour at night open exclusively to unlimited-slide ticket-holders.
A request for comment from Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office on the idea of bringing a giant slip and slide to the capital city wasn’t immediately returned, but Behle said they’re working to bring the event to Rhode Island next summer.
“We’d love to bring it near you guys,” he said.
