Bring The Fire Project!
Saturday 1st September. A warm summer’s night at Mann Island in Liverpool Docklands; the metropolitan Liverpool skyline dominating the surrounding darkness, crowds sat huddled together, silent, full of anticipation and that smell of fire igniting the soon-to-be spectators’ excitement…
Backtrack two days, I finally nailed the design of my new mobile fire stick stall. After a couple of weeks of trying to figure out a lightweight portable design, I finally decided that recycling was the way to go, so off to Aldi I went to find an old display unit to convert and convert it, I did.
Two hours later, my living room was awash with spray paint, glitter, gaffer tape, flickering lights and an array of craft tools that would make Neil Buchanan or Tony Hart proud. I managed to make something that I was extremely proud of, simple yet effective. Want to look? See for yourself...
Over the summer, Bring The Fire Project have what we call a ‘fire jam’ in Sefton Park every few months for novice and professionals alike to get together and showcase new skills and practice spinning fire in a safe and friendly environment. Recently we decided to open our events to the public so that they could come and watch as we practice doing what we love. We really did not expect the attention and interest that we got for our last Sefton Park event. When the Facebook practice event peaked at over 2000 people ‘interested’, we realised that we needed to up our game quickly. Even though it was just a normal practice, we knew folks would want to see something more so we moved locations and we created a new Facebook event for people to come and see us... ‘perform’.
Fast-forward, Saturday 31st of August, fires ignited, waiting patiently in the darkness in front of a modest crowd… we performed the end of summer ‘jam’. We set out an entire evening‘s worth of circus glow and fire, starting with circus skills workshops for the children. Using some of our amazing instructors, we taught people how. to juggle, how to use staff fire sticks and the unmistakable and all-time circus classic, spinning plates… all of which we also had on sale using the aforementioned DIY-born stall.
Next stop was solo acts, people who wanted to do something outside of the group choreography and to express their own love for fire and music. With amazing performances from the motion-abstract artistic to the crowd roaring, pulse racing types that everyone could appreciate. We even had some original music created for one of our fire fan’s performances. Bring The Fire Project is not just a business within the City of Liverpool, it is a fire-family who support each other in everything they do; fire, sticks and beyond. From the nerves of handling fire for the first time, right up to learning how to perform or even how to use our hobby to distract us from our real-world problems and give us better focus, everyone helps each other to become the best they can be not just in performing but in life too. I feel honoured that after two years of taking classes with the amazing Szymon and Kala, they they welcomed me into their fire-family and inner circle.
Over the next few months, you will see lots of Bring The Fire Project events across the city. The most popular will be bonfire night and if you are lucky enough to catch last year’s performances you will know this is not an event to miss!
During to performing and showcasing our products on the evening, I was unable to take fulfil my photographer role so please let me introduce you to a selection of images from our very supportive photographers and the work that they captured on our end of summer ‘jam’. Please be sure to check out all their social media pages and give them a like and follow!
