And it was this same communal spirit which Compagnie Carabosse managed to produce with their breathtaking combination of flame and animatronics in Hove’s St Ann’s Well Gardens.
The Victorian pleasure garden was lit up with flaming torches, leading visitors around paths to fire sculptures and performance areas dotted around the park.
Every spot seemed to contain a new attraction, whether it was the chance to watch the spacey sounds of the live musicians soundtracking the park to some eye-catching fire waterfall or mysterious automaton.
There didn’t seem to be any deeper meaning other than to create a spectacle, with the flaming sculptures ranging from the amazingly complex, including a strange machine topped by a flying emperor penguin, to a simple bunsen burner turned on and off using a giant wheel.
The aim seemed more to share fire’s beauty, enjoying an explorative experience, where visitors weren’t forced along marked paths, or kept back from obviously hot flames, with health and safety regulations giving way to common sense.
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