The Rotary Club of Hutt City has completed the fifth annual fire sculpture exhibition, and it just gets better every year.
How it works
The club runs this as part of the Petone Winter Carnival, an all day event that climaxes in a fire work spectacular. Around 40,000 people attend the event annually.
The club selects six community groups to build a work during the day and then set fire to it at dusk. Fire has a magical quality that attracts people, particularly in winter and the combination of raw flame with dynamic consumption of interesting shapes and forms is wonderful entertainment for the crowd awaiting the fireworks.
Over the years the club has worked out the best materials, shapes and sizes to alight the crowd. Ahead of the day four meter high plywood chimneys are built as the foundation for the work. These are filled with shredded cardboard, and laced with biodiesel. The height of the structure, chimney effect and selection of appropriate materials create an early intense fire.
Rotarians select groups, seek sponsored materials, assist in the building of works, marshal the crowd and clean up afterwards. Considerable profit is made from the sale of glow sticks during the event.
The safety of the fire displays are always paramount to our crew , and this year the ignition and burn-downs were dramatic as ever and the intensity of heat caused public to withdraw even further away from the cordons. It was reassuring to have both security personnel and the volunteer Rural Fire Brigade teams with us this year together with two fire trucks on standby on the beach in case there were difficulties in fire or crowd control.
The outcome
President Bob Rowell summed up. ‘What a fantastic day and evening as we saw all aspects of Rotary service come into play in the one project – the practical, organisational, artistic, financial and marketing and above all, the social with club fellowship and interaction with the 40,000 folk who attended the carnival. There was a fantastic response from the public to the carnival, fire sculptures and fireworks.’
The public were absolutely amazed that that we were giving marshmallows and skewers away free and the young, and not so young alike to toast the marshmallows on the embers of the burn-downs. This was an inexpensive goodwill exercise for the club and a wonderful way for Rotary to interact and give so many the pleasure of generosity and for the young, a new experience.
Hutt City Rotary believes that this project could be replicated at many other venues in Australia, the Pacific and New Zealand. Any club wanting to benefit from their experience is welcome to contact the club www.huttrotary.org.nz for a copy of the project manual and any other advice.
