McHenry “encourages fluidity” for anyone coming out for Light the Night on Saturday, Sept. 27 at Miller Point Park, said Bill Hobson, the city’s parks and recreation director.

During the annual event, fires are lit inside the 15 globe-style fire pits lining the McHenry Riverwalk along Boone Creek for the first time in the season. It also is one of the events where McHenry allows open liquor containers from 4 to 9 p.m. in portions of the downtown area, Hobson said.

The globes – all with a different theme and donated to the park by families and businesses – have LED lights in them the rest of the year. But beginning Saturday and for each Saturday until the end of October, fires are set inside the globes in the evening, weather permitting.

“We will put wood in them and set them on fire as long as the weather is good,” Hobson said.

McHenry organizers hope that in addition to coming down to see the globes set ablaze, attendees will shop at the Riverwalk Shoppes, buy from vendors set up at Miller Point Park, get dinner downtown or from one of the food trucks and stay for the 9 p.m. fireworks, Hobson said.

Johnsburg-based Justin Wallace will perform at the park’s bandshell from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and Brass from the Past out of Palatine will play from 7 to 9:30 p.m.

McHenry’s Riverwalk Foundation also is inviting attendees to come out for the grand opening of phase four of the riverwalk project.

Although the section was largely completed last summer, a ceremony was never held to mark the milestone, foundation President John Smith said.

The riverwalk grand opening will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday behind the Old Bridge Tavern, 1334 Riverside Drive. Phase four of the riverwalk runs behind the Riverside Drive businesses from the Elm Street/Route 120 bridge to the Green Street bridge.

“You need to celebrate your victories now and then,” Smith said.

A grand opening for the completed sections of the riverwalk kept getting delayed, as those involved had competing schedules, he said.

“Whoever makes it, makes it,” Smith said.

What the city or the foundation does not know is what will be the next section of riverwalk. There are concept plans for a section on the south side of Boone Creek and ideas for a stretch that could run along the former wastewater treatment plant site on the Fox River.

“Development kind of dictates” what will come next, Smith said.