Performing artists during the 2013 Pit Fire Festival.
The eighth annual Pit Fire Festival, featuring a large-scale pit firing of more than 1,000 ceramic works alongside a wide array of performing artists, is from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, on the Cochise College Douglas Campus.
The free event transforms the Douglas Campus Art Department ceramics studio and surrounding area into a celebration of local sounds, flavors and talented performers, which unite to form a scene of culture and diversity.
“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.”
This year’s festival returns fan-favorite Flam Chen, a circus and fire theater act that has been performing and touring since 1994. Flam Chen dazzles audiences with daredevil acrobatics, pyrotechnics and a beautiful display of light, air and fire.
Pottery for sale at the 2013 Pit Fire Festival.
Tucson-based band Tesoro, which plays a fusion of flamenco, rock, pop, rumba and cumbia, will also take the festival stage to perform a mix of original compositions and new takes on classics. Founding members Brian Scott and Justin Fernandez, guitarists, are joined by Gabriel Kaiser on drums, Andrew McClarron on bass, and frontman Efisio Giordanelli.
This year’s festival will also include performing groups Cirque Roots, Back Porch Swing, Robert Longley, Fired in Place, as well as culinary arts, fireworks and belly dancing.
“This event draws participants from New Mexico, Mexico, northern Arizona, and California – just to name a few,” Rich said. “Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration, and we are committed to a participatory ethic.”
Those in attendance who become a Friend of the Cochise College Art Department by making a $10 donation receive a handmade bowl to be filled with soup at the festival and taken home as a souvenir. On the menu from the college’s Culinary Arts Department is vegan chili with corn bread, beef stew with Irish beer bread, and chicken tortilla with French rolls.
A number of Cochise College clubs and organizations will have fundraising booths on site with food for sale. There will also be a Mata Ortiz exhibit, graffiti demonstrations, pottery demos, raku demos, painting demos, stilt walking, juggling, and art for sale. Fred Olsen, author of “The Kiln Book,” is also scheduled to make an appearance.
Throughout the morning and afternoon of Oct. 9, artists will line a 200-foot trench on the north side of campus with ceramic artworks. Later in the evening, Flam Chen will ignite the ceremonial pit fire as part of their performance. On Friday, Oct. 10, all of the signature ceramic works will be cleaned and head to Bisbee to be exhibited in a public gallery show as an extension of the educational aspect of pit firing.
“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 college’s pit fire started in 2005 with the collaboration between 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.
“Each year, this communal pit fire rejuvenates ties from previous years while bonding individuals through a commitment in creativity,” Rich said.
For more information about the annual Pit Fire Festival, visit www.pitfirefestival.com or call (520) 417-4025.