The Cochise College Art Department is hosting the 11th Annual Pit Fire Pottery Festival on Friday, October 6, starting at 6 p.m.

This free event will be held near the Art Department ceramics studio on the Cochise College Douglas Campus.

“This unique pit fire event will be a dazzling public spectacle,” said Tate Rich, Cochise College ceramics instructor. “As we commemorate the best of education, we will be enriched by the passions of our community.”

At the event, guests can enjoy a selection of gourmet soups freshly prepared by the Cochise College Culinary  and will be served in ceramic bowls made in the Art Department.

A strong line-up of music entertainment will be at the festival including Whiz! Bang! Chicken Plucker Skiffle Band, Cat Daddy & Barz Blues and Whiskey Kiss, Lori Keyne & the Cochise College Choir and the Cochise College Tribal Belly Dancers.

This year’s festival will also include a number of Cochise College clubs which will have booths on site along with pottery demos, drawings, and paintings.

All this and more will lead up to the lighting of the pit fire, an ancient method of “baking” clay.

“Ceramic pit firing is the oldest traditional method of firing clay wares, dating back to the Mesopotamian era,” Rich said. “Cochise County’s ancient roots can be traced through pottery shards found in archaeological digs surrounding the Douglas campus. As scores of participants converge for the Douglas Campus Pit Fire, the ancient dialogue of firing pots in the ground will once again engage our ties to the history of our ancestors.”

The pit fire lighting will start at 7 p.m. All proceeds support the Cochise College Art Department and the clubs who participate as vendors.

The college’s pit fire started in 2005 with the collaboration of Cochise College instructors Mike Garino and Rich, who invited potters to the college from Mata Ortiz, a pueblo in Mexico. These skilled artisans presented their daily practices and shared their pit firing methods with the Cochise community. The pit fire event has since evolved into a large-scale festival.

If you go:

Where: Cochise College Douglas Campus, 4190 W Highway 80, Douglas, AZ 85607

When: Friday, Oct. 6, 6 p.m.

For more information about the Pit Fire Festival visit www.cochise.edu/pitfirefestival/.