By Heather Hale, Sustainable Business Accounts Manager
Walking into
The Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival is like stepping into a carnival from a previous era. Men in stilts parade about and crouch down from their 15-foot stance to whisper “hello”, while ornate shadow puppets dance across an outdoor stage to live music, and enormous and intricate mouse-traps snap and fly.
But even more fantastic than all of this are the massive bursts of fire erupting from installation pieces scattered around the compound. Some come so close that I found my hands creeping up to my eyebrows to make sure they were still there.
The show is truly a mix of circus flair, old-world industrial craft, exhibitionism, and creative folks who appear to be willing to try anything with fire. What else could you ask for? Oh, and beer. Yes, there is beer.
And how is this shindig green, you ask?
Education and community classes are one of the most powerful tools to greening and empowering a community. And besides that, most of us have lost touch with hand making things. The thought of building even the simplest of tables can sound daunting (come on, I know putting together those Ikea tables is intimidating). Resourcefulness is in itself, green.
Having said this, why not learn how to weld scrap metals together to make a lamp, or learn the basics of working with wood? After all, making things from used parts at home is far more green than buying anything at a store. And it also serves as a creative outlet.
Now the hard part is choosing which class to take. I like the sound of
Monster Barbeque Building (so that’s where my landlord’s barbeque came from!).
For class listings at The Crucible, visit
thecrucible.org. Be sure to check out their upcoming coupon in the next edition of EcoMetro Guide and online at
ecometro.com.