Fire Arts Festival

NARRATIVEApproaching and passing the West Oakland BART Station giants and giantesses constructed from metal begin to fill the skyline.As the sun sets, fire tongues lick and leap from metal sculptures. Robots lumber and throw flames. Leather pants, and fire tools abound to the marvel and disbelief of the attendees and to the satisfaction of the artists and performers.CONTACT INFORMATIONThe Crucible1260 7th StreetOakland, CA 94607Phone: 510-444-0919Email: [email protected], 2nd week in July8 pm - midnight* Fire & Arts Soiree is held on Saturday.PRICE RANGELuxurious (but worth it!) or ask to volunteer!SUMMARYAfter 7 years of watching this flaming spectacle from the freeway and that BART-way I finally decided to volunteer to get a grounds-eye view of the goings-on.From the gorgeous Serpent Mother to the stories upon stories of metal sculpture gods and goddesses surrounded by a flaming garden of spectacle, art, robotics, pyrotechnics, demonstration, and interactivity (DANCE DANCE IMMOLATION!), the entire site is alight with elements that entice and delight all ages.Last night I served as a youth escort and worked with another youth escort to introduce the little 5 years olds to the fire arts and explain how it all worked. Their eyes (as well as mine) opened wide at the wonder of so much fire, noise, music, performances, and characters that abounded on the grounds.The Fire Oddesey combines dance, theater, opera, live and recorded music, humor, acrobatics, aerobatics that filled the bleachers and held the audiences delight.All hail the Fire Arts Festival and the Crucible for an excellent event!SERVICEAwesome. Well organized from the layout to the volunteer experience and the participant logistics.RESTROOMSPort-o-potties with handwashing stations! (Always appreciated.)SUGGESTIONMore demonstrations of the how these pieces were created or perhaps a pre-festival gallery walk where we can ask the artists how these pieces were created!

So, there were some big improvements to the previous year's FAF. First, it is in a much larger space. You had to shuttle from Bart this year, but that looked very organized. I drove this year, and parking was very easy and the security for the event was on top of everything.Second, they do have a few new exhibits... not many, but the Pendulum of Fire, which I think is new, just rocked. On Saturday, it did full loops and it was amazing to photograph.Third, they did seem to improve the bathroom and food situations.Now, I'll speak from the photography side of things. First, I would recommend going on the earlier days as it is difficult to maneuver through the Saturday crowds. I love the ease of being able to get credentialed for the event, but you still have to battle people just walking in front of your shot. Since they paid the same price as you, you can't really get upset at it happening, but it did ruin some nice shots.Second, I did feel that I was repeating my shots from last year. The new exhibits were great, but after 2 hours of shooting I felt like I had exhausted my captures.Last, for some reason, I was not as impressed with the stage entertainment as I was last year. I can't really explain. Don't know if it was the acoustics or what, but it just seem to be off. I think I might be in the minority.http://www.flickr.com/photos/kicksaveandabeauty/sets/72157621569257643/

Who's not attracted to fire? From watching a campfire under the forest canopy to slowly passing a burning car in the Macarthur Maze, as if stuck in a music video with the sound off, there's something about the licking flames that locks our gaze.The Fire Arts Festival fuels this fascination with obsession- its teachers' and students', creating a post-apocalyptic world of iron and acetylene, unalloyed vision made into shiny and heat treated reality.Art can be playful and whimsical. But fire sears away most levity, whether it's a series of flames that shoot up at the touch of the keyboard of the fire organ or a DDR, the dance video arcade game, set up so that tongues of flames shoot out at your face when you mis-step. It's hard not to want to lay your hands on the solid block of ice encasing a jet of flame that's slowly melting it inside out.Soon, you get used to hearing and seeing six huge fireballs simultaneously flaring up into the air from the tops of giant metal structures. Then you might wonder, is fire from the forest conflagration much different than plumes of burning propane spouting out of the upraised metal hands of the 50 ft tall goddess? Yes. Absolutely.The aesthetic is industrial chic; Pompidou Centre on a shoestring and hours of elbow grease. The pipes of gas and cables connected to secondhand laptops are unhidden. This is no Pirates of the Carribean ride at Disney World: WYSIWYG.Fire is harnessed for industry and for art, to be controlled by man and used for his purposes. As when a woman stands on the raised dias in the middle of a large ring and, with the wave of her scarf, causes flames to shoot up from the ground at the periphery. Here, the artifice returns: fire leaps at our merest gesture. Yet there is something elemental and terrifying about seeing the sky light up, the heat flashing on our faces for half a second, reminding us, at the foot of our ozymandian creations, how small we really are.

Awesome- except for the bathroom facilities. but hey, it's festival. A true spectacle and like nothing I have ever seen.Think of it as a more civilized Burning Man! It's a large outdoor lot filled with exhibitions, most fire related. Some whimsical and silly- an organ hooked up to giant piped that will shoot fire in accordance to the notes played. Some just awesome: the Fire Tornado created by men in fire suits shooting flame into jet streams of air to create a giant fire tornado reaching up 20 or so feet, as high as the bart running above. What a treat that was, to be on the trains passing that night!Aerialists, trapeze artists, stilt walkers, a giant tesla coil, a giant tree house constructed to allow you to climb up and see everything taking place. Crowds of Burning Man kilt wearing dread locked men, older art patrons, latin families from the neighborhood- all enjoying the spectacle.The festival lasts over 3 days with tickets ranging in prices to allow greater accessibility. We were in the VIP area to the tune of $125 a piece- the only real privilege accompanying this ticket price was seating in the VIP area (actually, somewhat worth it as it gets tiring to stand and walk around!) and a small sampling of hors d'oeuvres (none notable). But it was a benefit. And well worth the price.

I busted my ASS to get those giant sculptures that you could see from the BART ready for this show. I'm on Dan Das Mann & Karen Cusolito's crew and we certainly pulled some all nighters.I've been to Fire Arts for several years now. They really reached for the stars with this one. The fire opera was a great idea and the stage was BEAUTIFUL but it was just too damned long! The event started at 8pm and the opera at 10. That meant you had to be there when the gates opened and you only had 2 hours to check out all the interactive pieces. Once the opera started everything else shut down!The first night, I sat through most of it. Loved the cyclops. Got antsy for the rest.The opera lasted 2 hours and there weren't nearly enough seats. Try standing til midnight. I took my parents and they really wanted to see ALL the art but we got there at 9:45. Hell, I couldn't even get them close enough to the art that *I* made because of the dogmatic "crowd control". Since my parents are older, there was no way they could stay up til midnight for the opera to end --especially standing.Next year, please try making the opera last no more than 45 minutes so that people can see the other stuff too!!! Or -- at least let the other art go on during the opera, especially if you aren't going to provide enough seating! Come-on! People paid $50 each to stand for 2 hours?The last night, I went back with my 7-year-old nephew and we got there at 8pm on the dot. We left when the opera started. This was the way to go and we had a blast. How many 7-year-olds get to handle flame throwers? I am now the COOLEST AUNT EVER!Let's recap:5 stars for the art (Lotus Girls an all the great interactive stuff)5 stars for letting my nephew get involvedMinus 2 stars for the opera upstaging all the other work that so many people put into this.Minus 1 star for not providing enough seating for the $50 tickets-----------------------Survey says....2 stars. :(

Still one of the best shows in the Bay Area. New location with more space, more installations, more fire, more fun. Take a class at The Crucible this year. Better yet, send your kid.

FIRE! We must be the luckiest people in the modern world - where else can you see people dressed like lab rats shocking a human with mega high voltage doses of electricity? Or sexy fire-dancing couples doing erotic duets with flaming hula-hoops to beautiful rhythmic drum and bass/trance-like music? How about 30-foot hurricanes of flames, and working vintage steam tractors blowing that timeless "woo-woo" sound that we in the 21st-century have only heard in movies? YES. OAKLAND. Thank you Crucible, once again you have rocked my world.

This was my first year at the festival and I will be back!It was a truly unique, inspiring and awesome event.Various exhibitions were inventive and I really give credit to the artists with the vision to create such wonderful work.Loved the stage show presentations as well.

What can you say about fire that hasn't been written about before? As I stood in the cooling Oakland night, with bursts of light and heat around me, I was at a loss for words. The sheer beauty of fast-burning propane lighting up the sky, creating amazing shadows against the industrial art that houses its tanks, well, it's just a fantastic spectacle to behold. I first had a taste for fire sculptures at Maker Faire last year, and when I saw this festival come up, I knew that resistance would be futile. Quite a few of the sculptures I saw back then were at the festival tonight - so I saw them before? Doesn't make them any less beautiful to see again. There is one - a woman, throwing her arms up to the sky. The flames pulse with her heartbeat before eventually overflowing and blazing her in all of her glory. The tornado of fire - that was just, well, it was just AWESOME. I think my face was baked off by the sheer heat as the two controllers built the flames up in a crescendo. And by controllers, I mean two men, controlling fire using giant fans, create a tornado of fire which alternates from smooth funnels of burnished copper to shrieking white, blue and yellow fur-like flames that billow out into the night.Special mention should also go to the pendulum which had some form of psycho man-o-war shooting flames from all four compass points. The flames helped propel around, with the crowds all shouting and willing the pendulum to swing around in one perfect circle. It didn't (the little flame-propelled man-o-war that could?). This festival is not all about fire though. It is about light as well - neon. Personally, I am not a fan, but I did still see some pretty cool concepts using neon (a male cheerleader on stilts using a holographic neon baton). The shows that are put on are fair to middling - they are overshadowed by the main star of the show. However, I did really enjoy watching the flamenco dancers. Ole!The crowd is a hugely mixed bag, with families out, steampunks who seem to multiply in numbers as the night rolls on, Burning Man attendees, techies, geeks, nerds, the whole shebang. I did think that one geek, snatching one of the interactive toys from a young girl was being rather mean tho.It's not the cheapest night out you will have, and the prices rise over the days that the festival is held. I was cheap and went for day 2, which still sat comfortably-ish in my price range ($40). But - before you gasp and deny the cost - this is the best organized festival I have been to in a long time. Toilets with sinks (that were still working towards the end of the night); good fair food (not a garlic fry in sight - but some wicked pulled chilli-spiked pork sandwiches and (joy of joys) hot spiced apple cider from Brown Sugar Kitchens. When the night is cold, there is nothing better to cosy on up to. And (this sadly made my little OCD day), there was even a sink in the food area so you could wash your hands after grappling with your meal. How brilliant is that? Take note as well, this is a fundraiser as well to help support the work that The Crucible does in terms of classes in woodwork, stonework, glass blowing, casting, etc. and other mediums which go towards further the creative juices in industrial art (there was a really a large display of the different classes available which was great). Considering how much work and how many people are involved to make this concert happen, I believe that we are getting away with a bargain.

I can only say that I saw a little preview of what's to come this year and it looks very interesting! A random location with an eclectic group of people and tons of crazy metal fire blazing sculptures; what's not to enjoy? Oh and a tasty, cheap taco truck to boot!