telluride – Telluride Fire Festival

Offsetting Our Carbon Footprint

At the Festival, fire takes center stage as the dynamic force that it is. We know that what we are doing here (and each and every day of our lives) has an impact. For us, focusing on fire brings it back to the conversation, so we can recognize its power and see that it can both transform and destroy.

With this understanding, the Festival is committed to ACTION to make significant changes in the way we live every day, and you can do this, too. This year, the Festival has purchased 1,000 trees to help restore our national forests that have been ravaged by fire. Trees, and in fact, all plant life, clean our planet’s atmosphere by removing carbon (from the combustion of fuels) and transforming it into oxygen. This is but one small step that each of us can take to help restore that which is essential to life.

In addition, we are committed to the two most important of the 3-R’s: REDUCE and REUSE. Most of the clean, chemically-untreated wood burned in the artistic fire cauldrons and art installations has been salvaged from construction dumpsters. Much of the event decor has been “rescued” and reused, and the stages (and many informational signs) have been made out of salvaged hardware, lumber, and plywood. In addition, the Festival purchased an all-electric vehicle in 2018, which goes farther (and faster) than a gasoline- powered vehicle, further reducing the amount of fossil-fuel “fire” we use.

May the fire at the Festival inspire you to face your use of fire and ACT to make important changes in your life every day.

Teens Create!

This past November 6 & 7 Rocky Mountain Arts held a workshop with teens in the True North Youth Program. These talented students created a wood sculpture, which will be on display Dec. 4 at Resurrection…and, will burn a la Burning Man style along with two other larger-than-life sculptures.

The amazing Co-Creators were:
Angie Saldin, Selma Tutt-Pyk, Valeria Villafuerte, Jocelyn Nieto, Daniel Gutierrez,
Alex Ramirez, Jairo Gonzalez Zarazua, Claire Jacobs, and Alex Ambriz.

True North Youth Program: Art installation build workshop

This art installation build workshop is taking place in the Festival Founders yard on November 6 & 7. Eight teens have signed up to create magic over two days with Chris Myers & Erin Ries. The sculpture will be showcased at Resurrection on December 4th. And, it will be torched like the other wood sculptures.

The True North Youth Program kids will attend the event for free.

This program was made possible in part by the generous support of Alpine Bank.

If you are with True North Youth Program and wish to participate, email erin@telluridefirefestival.org.

COVID Safety

Right now, more than ever, we need to support artists and create space to have fun, while at the same time being safe. We welcome anyone and everyone to join us December 3-5 in Telluride, CO.

Here’s what we are doing to keep our participants, volunteers, staff, artists, and performers safe:

Attendees will be required to wear a face mask indoors
Face masks will be provided if you don’t have one
Limit of 10 people at one time in Slate Gray Gallery
No cash transactions, only credit card purchases on site
Hand sanitizer will be available at every event and workshop
Attendees will be required to show proof of vaccination with ID or negative Covid test within 72 hours of Dec. 3 with ID.

If you wish to volunteer, donate or be a sponsor please email erin@telluridefirefestival.org for more info.

Fire Performances & Fire Installations

Thank You Mountain High Fire & Safety!

We wish to thank Mountain High Fire & Safety for their continued support of the Telluride Fire Festival. We are so grateful for their sponsorship as we head into our 3rd annual event. We could not do it without you!

Justin Gray Fiery Robots: coming to Telluride Fire Festival

Justin Gray built his first RC car at age seven and picked up his first welding torch at age sixteen. An apprenticeship with renowned sculptor Martin Metal shaped Justin’s esthetics in patina and metal sculpture.

Justin soon co-founded fire sculpture group Therm. This underground group built wild and complex fire sculpture and presented it internationally, pushing the envelope of audacious art and performance. Legendary large-scale machine performance group Survival Research Labs soon captured Justin’s interest, and he joined this group of like-minded techno-destructionists in 2006.

Justin’s obsession with radio control also thrived, leading him to protype and build his first electric vehicle in 2000. Justin continued building custom electric vehicles for future-thinking clients looking to gain a foothold in the burgeoning electric vehicle industry, and continues this work today.

It was only a matter of time before Justin’s passions converged and his resulting fleet of electric drive radio controlled fire sculpture robots are uniquely powerful, savage, and beautiful.

Justin’s robots share his shop with Graywrx Fabrication, a fully tooled machining and fabrication shop, where his broad range of abilities and limitless imagination enable Justin to engineer solutions to even the unlikeliest challenges posed by his exacting clientele.

Specialties

Electric vehicle design and fabrication, prototyping, metal fabrication, robotic systems design and build, special effects (fire and robots), precision machining including mill and lathe work, hydraulic systems design and repair.

Albuquerque artist, Shane Shane’s biodiversity sphere at 2017 Fire Fest

Albuquerque artist Shane Shane created a biodiversity sphere out of a 500-gallon propane tank from the 1950s. Each detail is more intricate than the next. And Albuquerque artist Shane Shane wanted it that way. Out of a 500-gallon propane tank from the 1950s, Shane was able to create a world.

It’s one of wonder and it’s one with a message.

“The ecosystem is important to every creature,” explains Shane. “Each part is represented in this piece.”

Shane’s “Biodiversity Sphere – Endless Prospect of Life & Wonder” took nearly three months of work. Each piece of the project was hand cut by Shane and Shaun Myers.

There are dolphins, elephants, rhinos as well as an owl, a wolf and many sea creatures included in the piece. Inside the hollow sphere, Shane has set up a propane tank, which lights up the entire sculpture at night.

Shane is making his first trip to Telluride this January 20 to participate in the 3rd annual Festival both his Biodiversity Fire Sphere and a new creation called Obelisk.

Image by Albuquerque Journal photographer, Jim Thompson.

Breaking News Update: Fire Ball Fundraiser

The Festival culminates in this spectacular fundraising Fire Ball and Barn Burning: a unique setting atop the gondola at Station St Sophia in the 30-foot high vaulted ceilinged venue. This location is ideal for both in-town and Mountain Village guests. This fete, where audience will become artist, offers a truly unique experience, combining exhibition with performance, and commemorating all forms of artistry.

The fabulous LoveTribe along with DJ Phoenix, The Strangefellow, will provide high energy music to dance by. Theatrical performers Stacy Everson, Kim Bucki and Bryan Pope with mesmerize all. Attendees will choose between intimate lounge areas, dance spaces, have unlimited beverages, and appetizers.

Buy Tickets

The Shack To-Hell-U-RIde

The Fire Festival art car was created to resemble a turn-of-the-century miner’s shack. The actual shack, created with 100-year old wood sits on a cut down 1989 Ford Transporter Van. The shack literally appears to “float” along the road as the tires are completely hidden from view by rusted corrugated steel.

The interior boasts a turn-of-the century ice box, real wood burning stove and chandelier. As all shacks in Telluride had sleeping quarters, this shack does as well.

The most exquisite piece of this Mutant Vehicle is the illusion that the shack is on fire. Something you simply must see for yourself…this summer at Burning Man or January 15, 16 or 17, 2016 at the Telluride Fire Festival.

Make a tax deductible donation of $1,000 or more and you can have this fiery spectacle at your next house party or event in the Town of Telluride. Email erin@telluridefirefestival.org for more details.

Tag Archive for: telluride