Fire Gardens
Compagnie Carabosse
Presented with Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
10 October 2018
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria
to 13 October
www.festival.melbourne
Photos by the amazing Sarah Walker
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
If you don't have a ticket to the Fire Gardens, I don't think there's any chance of getting one. It sold out, and the extra tickets sold out. And it's a flaming reminder that families and groups of friends and all sorts of wonderful people want to go to affordable spectacular events at festivals.
Last night, the Botanic Gardens was full of people rugged up in black coats, and this may be the only festival show many buy tickets for. For many of them MIAF 2018 will always be memories of fire in the the gardens. This kind of event lets so many people experience the spectacle of art; it's so much more exciting than the Moomba fireworks.
My date for the evening was seven-year-old Isiah who totally accepted that the gardens would be full of fire, and live music, and old radios, and swing chairs, and kinetic sculptures made from old clocks that balance on high wires, and "whirlwinds of fire".
Because you are welcome to get close, we could see how the fires were lit, look at the coal in wire baskets, ask what liquid was being poured into the fire pits (acetone), and wonder how deep the water in the lake is and how they light the sculptures floating in the water (by boat; we saw their boats).
It's creepy and magnificent and coming around a corner to see spheres of fire on the lake makes you remember that we say breathtaking because you stop breathing for a moment.
If you've got a ticket, rug up, wear something that isn't black so that you can see your friends in the dark – it IS dark –, explore, sit, and imagine being in every apocalyptic novel you've loved or sci fi world you've imagined.
As no one can take a good phone photo of fire in the dark, here are some of Sarah Walker's amazing photos.
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
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| Fire Gardens. MIAF 2018. Photo by Sarah Walker |
