May 3rd, 2012
First and foremost, The Organizers, some of the most talented, competent and driven people with whom I've had the pleasure of working. They worked tirelessly for a year and a half, for free, through every setback and over every hurdle to make this happen. Susan Englert superwoman, festival co-organizer and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound while keeping this and several other projects in the air, all while not getting fired from a demanding day job as a mild-mannered architect. Susan not only came up with one new great idea for the festival every single day, but then went ahead and implemented them. Drue Miller graphic artist/marketing whiz/PR guru extraordinaire. Anything visual you saw that wasn't on fire - logos, t-shirts, banners etc. - was designed by Drue. Also, if you didn't hear about the festival beforehand, you were living in a cave, as Drue got us into every single area paper, on the radio and TV and all over the Internet. J. Eric "Jet" Townsend fellow fire geek and safety enforcer. Jet convinced the town of Munhall to let us try to burn you to a crisp while simultaneously being the reason you didn't. Elizabeth "Lizzie" "Beth" "LizzieBeth" "SeveralOtherNicknames" Keating kid-fun organizer and wrangler. If you're a kid, or a kid who's the parent of a kid, Lizzie made your afternoon unforgettable by organizing all of the daytime events. She also has the skills and the imagination to create pretty much anything that you might want to make happen. Jan Loney artisan wrangler and demo-make-happener. If you saw someone actually making something cool/pretty/useful using fire, Jan made it happen. Lori Howsare stage "smooth operator." Joining us while the game was already in progress, Lori taught me (in my naïveté) that a show doesn't go on without a stage manager. Given complete and utter chaos, Lori organized Saturday's stage show into, well, an actual stage show. The Performers and Artisans: In no particular order, your entertainment for the evening: fire and light dancing, spinning, hooping and other performances by Annie Cothran + Hakan (Norman D. Papernick,); Carolina Loyola-Garcia and her Flamenco musicians; Daniel Brenner aka APEX; Kiyla Ortega; Mandy Hackman; Sterling Yoga; Phoenix Fire (Carenza Bint Asya, Brian Shank; Steel Town Fire (Erika May, Vicki Kerestes, Erin Dougherty, Christian Tsu-Raun); demos by Robert Burns; Gary Baun, 3 Rivers Glass Beadmakers; Michael Mangiafico & the Pittsburgh Glass Center; Chef Odette Smith-Ransome and crew from AIA; John Walter and Iron Eden; kids' entertainment and science from the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Science Center; music and sound by DJ Zombo (Zombo's Record Party); our MCs, Phat Man Dee and Andrew The Impaled, not just talkers/music players, but excellent performers in their own right. Our Funders: Mac Howison & the Sprout Fund, Justin Laing & the Heinz Endowments and Gregg Behr & the Grable Foundation, the visionary people and organizations that believed that "safe, family friendly fire arts festival" was not an oxymoron. Our fiscal sponsors, the Children's Museum and New Sun Rising, who enabled us to receive our grants. Rivers of Steel: Ron Baraff and Sherris Moreira, who pulled the strings and did the work so we could stage Pyrotopia at the Historic Pump House, and who trusted us not to burn it down. The Town of Munhall: Darryl Hall, PJ Ostrowski, the Munhall VFD #1, EMS and Police Department, who kept you safe and healthy and enthusiastically supported the burning of 20 gallons of liquid fuel and 800 pounds of propane. The City of Pittsburgh, who saved us a ton by lending barricades and trash containers, just because we asked. The Documentarians: Renee Rosensteel and her team, Jesse Colaizzi and Jeff Zoet. We've seen the imagery, and it is amazing. Renee can always be trusted to capture the moments, and you'll see the results online shortly. The Volunteers, (including friends-from-afar Leif Krinkle, Boris Klompus, Dan Glass, Gavin Heck and Seth Hardy) who worked their asses off just because they thought it would be fun (and I suspect they did). The Stage Crew, Wes Adamson, Spring Pigeon, Alyssa Ruggerio and Garth Schafer, who kept the lights on and the artists in line. The Insurers: Buck O'Korn & Gullborg Insurance, Randy Warren and Mike Fennell of ISERA and Specialty Insurance Agency, insurance wizzes who are able to convince underwriters that insuring a fire festival is a good idea. Especially Buck, whose 11th hour save allowed the festival to go on. Donors and Sponsors: Joe Mammarelli Jr. & Alloy Oxygen, who said "take as much propane as you need." If you want your BBQ tanks full instead of 2/3 (see: HD and Lowes), go to Alloy. Jay Simpson & Airborne Promotions, who bannerized the city for us, and Kent Noble, who braved weather adversity to take the dramatic imagery. And all of you who chipped in onilne for the cause. Afterword If you'd asked me a week before the event, "Will you do this again next year," I would have said, "NFW!" With the successes, the attendance and the overwhelmingly positive response, it seems we have no choice but to make this an annual event. So welcome to Pyrotopia: Pittsburgh's Annual Festival of Fire Arts. (And in the meantime, if you have an event or festival that needs lit up, please get in touch.) Some things went wrong. Most things went right. We learned a ton and are tracking comments and feedback. We'll be back bigger, better and even more organized next year. Between now and then, we hope to become Pittsburgh's portal for all things Fire Art, disseminating information about the scene and sponsoring classes. Stay tuned... A lot of people said "This was awesome!" Many said, "I want to help next year!" The biggest reward though would be inspiring people to come up with their own crazy, impossible idea and work like hell to make it happen. Any city can always use more of this spirit. Favorite Moments Although personally, I missed seeing most of the action first-hand as I ran around putting out ... no, setting fires, I did have a collection of favorite moments. Closing the evening by playing sax on "Ring of Fire" with John, Man Dee and Andrew. Seeing lots of friends for 10 seconds at a time. Watching players startle at the first blast of Flaming Simon. Seeing many great performances, albeit from behind, and witnessing so many different flavors of Fire Art. Running around all night, MacGyvering, doing at least three things at once and just generally being in my element. This is one of the hardest events I've ever pulled off and one of the most gratifying - and those two go hand in hand.
Thank you for your support!
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