🔥 Burn the Bird 🔥

Friends recently bought a home in Phoenixville, PA. A fixer upper that they decided was ready for unveiling. So they invited over the crew from the Finger Lakes trip, and all but one of us was able to go.

And they picked this past weekend because it was the weekend of the Phoenixville Firebird Festival.

The centerpiece of this event is the namesake bird, built of wood anew every year, and set aflame.

It may not be obvious from these pictures, but it was already crowded when we arrived. There were performers as well as random folks in the crowd in costume, but in the darkness it was hard to tell which were which, if you could see them at all.

We had arrived about forty minutes before ...

... the main event ...

.. the burning of the Phoenix.

These two images were taken seconds apart, and while it looks as if the fire exploded, but that was just me choosing different focus spots and the camera adjusting exposure.

Here is a video showing the effect in a more spectacular fashion.

I do think it is cool to have secondary images on phone cameras in those images above. I've seen a number of pundits who have decried that folks are looking at their phones and not the event itself. But what I saw were people holding up their phones offset such that they could view the fire directly. They were in the moment and recording memories. Using technology to enhance, not replace, the experience.

🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥

These are all images taken handheld with my iPhone 6S Plus. That was not the plan. I had swapped lenses on my DSLR so that my 50mm f/1.4 was on the camera. I swapped out the battery for a fully charged one. As I didn't want to carry a tripod about town I fitted a small ball-head to my monopod which I planned to use a walking stick.

And I packed everything but the camera. D'oh!

🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥

Overall, I enjoyed the outing. Dinner was yummy. And as an event, well who doesn't like a [controlled!] big fire? But as a festival it needs a bit of work.

This is the 15th year of the Firebird Festival, but the first I've attended. And the burning was at a new site this year. It seems attendance has been growing, and a larger space was needed to accommodate the crowd. However, this meant that the bird was a s significant distance from the center of town.

So where in prior years one could go to the bird site, visit the vendors, see the artists and performers, and then easily return to main street for dinner, and then back to the bird, this year for most it was a one way trip from town to fire.

🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥  🔥

So we walked into town, saw a fire juggler ...

... and a dance troop, The Morris Dancers, decked out in costume featuring turkey feathers ...

... but that was it for street performers. We then had a very nice dinner at a Thai restaurant, and keeping with the burn the bird theme I had crispy duck. And then a long walk to the bird site.

There were performers and vendors at the site, but as it was dark and crowded it was not a good experience. And there as a Killers cover band, with an inadequate sound system for the size crowd. And while there were food vendors there was no seating area.

In short, there was no reason to go to the bird site during daylight hours and the vendors and performers added little after dark. There were shuttle buses but it was not an efficient set up. They need a compelling reason for people to go to the bird site during the day. Otherwise, it will be into town for dinner and then off to see the bird burn. Not much of a festival in that.