Festival Of Fire Arts Coming To Pittsburgh’s Waterfront on Saturday

Pyrotopia—the First Annual Festival of Fire Arts will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight this Saturday at The Historic Pump House & Water Tower.

Located at 880 E. Waterfront Drive, Munhall, at Pittsburgh’s Waterfront, the one-day event is free and open to the public.

As the East Coast’s first-ever festival dedicated to fire arts, Pyrotopia will present fire’s diversity of use by artists and celebrate humankind’s primal fascination with fire. Pyrotopia will entertain, enchant and introduce attendees to the use of fire, as well as electricity and light, as artistic media by showcasing artists employing these elements in many ways.

Festival installations and performers will include:
 
• Flaming Simon, a fire-driven version of the electronic game "Simon" created by Pittsburgh artist and Pyrotopia founder Eric Singer.
 
• Fiery Flamenco Dancing by Carolina Loyola-Garcia. She will perform “In the Time of Memory” with live musical accompaniment by Jon Bañuelos, James Bond, Luke Savage and Barb York.
 
• Fire spinners and dancers from Steel Town Fire, Pittsburgh’s premiere fire performance troupe.
 
• Megavolt Tesla Coil, a six-foot tall Tesla coil created by Pittsburgh engineer Mark Barlow.
 
• A special ground-effects fireworks show by New Castle’s Pyrotecnico, which orchestrated the dazzling fireworks display at the 2011 Three Rivers Regatta.
 
• Live demonstrations of fire-related arts, including glassblowing, pewter casting, and plasma torch cutting.
 
The evening will be co-hosted by jazz chanteuse Phat Man Dee and performance artist Andrew the Impaled. DJ Zombo will play special sets of fire-themed music throughout the night.
 
Carrie Blast Furnace Lighting
In conjunction with the festival, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area will illuminate the Carrie Blast Furnace complex across the river from the pump house later in the evening, providing a dramatic backdrop for the event.
 
Children’s Events on Saturday Afternoon
On Saturday afternoon from noon until 5pm, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Science Center will present special programming for families, including hands-on art projects with Black Light Spin Art and LED Lanterns, and demonstrations showing the science of fire and how fireworks get their color.
 
Funded by Sprout, Heinz and Grable
Major funding for Pyrotopia is provided by a Seed Award from the Sprout Fund and a Small Arts Initiative grant from the Heinz Endowments. Funding from the Grable Foundation will support daytime educational and DIY arts programming for children, family-oriented activities and promotion geared to bring families to the event.   
 
“Funding from Sprout, the Heinz Endowments and the Grable Foundation will allow us to stage an artistic event that is unprecedented in the area and on the East Coast,” said Eric Singer, festival founder and lead organizer. “The rapid growth and interest in festivals like Burning Man and The Crucible Fire Arts Festival on the West Coast signal a deep fascination with fire used in performance, installation and sculpture. We are creating this festival to unleash Southwestern Pennsylvania's own unique brand of fire art.”
 
The team producing Pyrotopia is comprised of artists, technologists, producers and other experts with long-term experience in working safely with fire and employing fire in artistic practice.
 
For more information about the festival, please see www.pyrotopia.net.
 
About Eric Singer
Pyrotopia founder Eric Singer is a musician, artist, engineer and programmer and the Founder of LEMUR: League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon; a Diploma in Music Synthesis from Berklee College of Music; and an MS in Computer Science from New York University. He has over 20 years of experience in the areas of electronic musical instruments, interactive systems, robotics and pyrotechnics. He performs and lectures around the world and teaches a wide range of art and technology subjects. He is known internationally for his software and hardware products for interactive art creation. He founded the NYC Burning Man regional organization in 1998, is a co-founder of the NYC machine and fire arts collective The Madagascar Institute and has taught at the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and the Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts.