A Provincetown scene in the not-too-distant future:
Excitement mounts as crowds line up at the gate. The faint strains of “Mystere Rondo,” a Cirque du Soleil theme song, can be heard as performers spring ahead juggling and doing cartwheels and flips. It’s just the beginning of an extraordinary experience with music, dance, and highwire and trapeze artists performing along Rue Commerciale.
Once each day, up to 300 guests are allowed to pass through Provincetown Gate and ride in electric carts, enjoying the entertainment, to the stellar lineup of shops reminiscent of Rodeo Drive: Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Hermes offer goods rarely available on Cape Cod until the town’s transition to a place where New England hippie meets West Coast ultra-hipster.
Spécialités du Mer occupies the former Ravelson building and features the latest yacht gear, décor, and technology, along with booths where customers may experience, via virtual reality, the newest yacht models tricked out by world-class interior designers.
The old Lopes Square has become a magnificent plaza where beautiful fountains, sculpture, and a casual restaurant welcome weary shoppers and guests arriving at the yacht dock or heliport adjacent to the private-equity financed MaxMillion Pier that replaced the decrepit former town-owned pier.
Dining options include New England versions of Nobu, Intercrew, Baieta Paris, and L’Oiseau Blanc, where local citizens, their guests, and a few lucky daytime visitors enjoy fare familiar to those with sophisticated tastes.
Twice a year, Provincetown hosts Nuits Blanches, featuring au courant musical groups in the Pilgrim Monument Amphitheater, whose retractable dome makes both open-air and all-night shows possible. Daytime events include Biennale d’Art in venues all along Rue Commerciale, Lopes Square, and MaxMillion Pier.
June brings the annual Festivale du Film, with showings and lectures at the PM Amphitheater and venues specially constructed each year. Hollywood and New York filmmakers premiere their latest works and choose the winner of the Mer Verte Award — a million-dollar grant to a young, aspiring filmmaker.
All agree that the town’s official slogan is spot on: A Place Like Nowhere Else, for People Like No One Else.
Dame Blanche is a Provincetown futurist.
