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October 01, 2006
The Firegarden
Went to the Firegarden last night. Manchester's answer to Burning Man, well not quite. But a group of French welders and musicians put together a lot of metal sculptures and set fire to them in the gung-ho fashion popular on mainland Europe.
Quite spectacular, and the more so as you were allowed to walk amongst the red hot exhibits. I can't help feeling this sort of thing won't be able to happen in a few year's time, at least not without streams of safety wardens and barriers set at such a distance that the whole thing would be like looking at a bunch of candles. It was exciting precisely because you could walk round in and amongst it.
This particular piece roared and hissed for a while, then the man [French, welder and musican] turned the big wheel which must have tripped a baffle in the chimney for a huge ball of flame erupted from the top.
The man turned the wheel a bit more and let the fire roar up the chimney, rather like a rocket engine, for a while before turning it some more and shutting the whole thing down to brew up another fireball.
I tried to get the fireball on camera but what with it being somewhat unpredictable [Gallic Whim I suspect] dark, raining and muddy with dozens of people lurching about, I missed it.
Posted by john at October 1, 2006 04:55 PM