The performances themselves were mixed. Some, like the one by Seattle artist Tobi Nassbaum, were wonderful. Tobi had flaming balls attached to the ends of thin chains which she could swing about her. She sculpted circles, arcs, and veritable walls of fire with creative swinging patterns. Others were just weird. David Hartz's (also of Seattle) entire performance consisted of lighting a giant paint brush on fire and watching it burn. After staring at the fire for a while, waiting for something else to happen, the audience broke into puns: "It's a burning brush! No, it's a brush fire! A fire in hand is worth two in the brush!"
The secret to the festival was just to watch the fire. If you concentrated on it you would see the beauty of the flame coming through even the least refined of performances. In the good acts, you could not draw your eyes from the flame anyway. One interesting thing was watching the safety people put out the fires. After many of the acts, people would come out with fire extinguishers to quench any flames left burning. About half the time the cloud of CO2 would put out the flame, then, as the safety people were leaving, the flame would reignite itself. Every time this happened, the crowd burst into applause for the flame and starting chanting: "Fire! Fire!" I have never seen so many fire fans in one place before.
There are already plans for next year's Burningpoint. It will be a week long event and feature flame artists from around the world. If you are in Seattle next year, Burningpoint will be the place to be.
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