Autumn Lights Festival in Oakland, CA is a long-running and beloved Oakland tradition. It takes place at the Gardens at Lake Merritt every October. This event is a fundraiser for the garden, which is a peaceful sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of the city, right on the shore of the lake. 

Around 100 LED light artists bring their creations out to Autumn Lights every year. This year, we caught up with Yvette Schindler, who created a giant Connect 4 game using laser-etched acrylic, NeoPixels and arcade buttons. It's a fully functioning game where players can face off with each other by standing on either side of the board and pressing buttons to drop a "piece" wherever they'd like. This was a really popular installation -- people were lined up to play all night long. 

The game also functions as an art piece, with gorgeous colorful animations that run while no one is playing. It is one of the most beautiful and intuitively interactive use of pixels and Arduino we've seen. 

Learn more at http://www.yvonneschindler.com

Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com

By Erin St Blaine - http://www.erinstblaine.com

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