Newbury Canoe club had the privilege of being asked to assist in the lighting of the canal braziers that burnt throughout the 3 day fire festival in Newbury.
Last seen 10 years ago, the french company Cie Carbosse, in conjunction with 101 outdoor arts and the Newbury Corn exchange, created this multi-sensory spectacle of music, sculptures and fire. Approx, 9000 people took the calming walk from West Mills, along the canal through town and into Victoria park to reach the climactic image of Newbury being on fire.
Bringing their knowledge and experience of this stretch of water, members of the club volunteered to assist across the 3 nights. However, they were rather less experienced in using and steering vessels with an engine, preferring to opt for 2 hands on paddles, so a number of training sessions were arranged with the plastic boats. This included one night session to get used to the gentle manoeuvring in the dark around the burners. Martin from 101 brought down a burner to practice hooking on to and to give us an idea of what we were letting ourselves in for.
Andy found his natural place in life, of fire and water, and experienced in various water vessels we barely saw him out of the boats, but his knowledge and experience helped build the confidence of the team. It took some time to establish a comfortable and effective position but we all eventually adopted Jacqui's technique of laying low and bringing the handle across us. It was observed by 101 land crew that we adopted this laid down position in contrast to the 101 crew who opted for up on the knees. We suspected this was because we are used to sitting low in the water and using our bodies more-so to control the boat...or maybe we are all of a certain age where sitting on our knees all night was not physically viable!
Whilst the public got to enjoy the splendour for a couple of hours each night the NCC crews were out from 6pm until near on midnight for some. Because the waterways had to be clear throughout the day all of the braziers had to all be pulled in at night and back out and realigned the next day.
During the day the 101 crew got the braziers replenished for easy lighting. We hopped into the boats at 6pm to start dragging them out to their markers. This involved some core balance and fine steering technique, hitting the correct spot in the central line, as the concrete block was thrown in the whole boat moved, receiving quite some splashback. Crews found their rhythm together and were soon returning with their gas torches to light the braziers. Kieron looked completely at home in his para-stance at the front of the boat ladened with gas gun!
Once all of the braziers were lit the evening calmed down as we gently meandered up and down the shadows of the canal, reliving our net balling days by throwing logs into the burners, much to the amusement of those frequenting the canal side bars! Sunday night myself and Nick got the backing of one bar because the other boat were seen to have missed a log! There was also competition between who loaded up the logs the neatest...we somehow got nicknamed team neat and tidy! Colin and crew did a sturdy job on land, pulling us in and loading us back up with logs.
Saturday night felt a little livelier,, likely due to most people having come straight from the Ale festival at Northcroft, On Sunday, even at lighting, there was an eery serene quietness to town, as the public walked calmly by as they were enchanted saxophonists and finger drums.
By 9.45pm we were poised by the radios to start dousing the fires, by literally throwing buckets of water on them...I'm sure most of Hannah's water ended up over my legs! The braziers all had to then have the weighted anchors pulled back up and returned to shore. Various approaches to this were tried out but by the final night we fully mastered it and finished up 20 minutes earlier than Saturday night. Saturday night, Hannah from 101 was so exhausted her boating skills completely failed her so we swapped roles and she did the heavy lifting. Martin from 101 won my prize for the best douser as I came away dry! Andy and Kieron has the record for the most braziers being pulled at one time!
Whilst the 101 crew were highly proficient, there were times our water knowledge really paid off, so between us all it worked out to be a great collaboration. The weather staved off (mostly) which made it so much more enjoyable.
In all we had 15 volunteers from the club that helped out. Some were complete superheroes and tackled all 3 nights (Andy, Luca and Rob), some covered 1 or 2 nights, some did break covers which was a godsend. With a last minute desperate plea, additional members came to the rescue Sunday night.
I think Andy may still be floating along the canal somewhere as I'm not sure I saw him out of the boat for the last 2 weeks! 1010 will be lucky if they got their boat back! But his knowledge and experience helped created a quiet confidence and reassurance for the team knowing he was out on the water.
The general feedback of volunteers was that we felt it was a privilege to play our part in providing such a unique local event, to the 9000 people who walked by, some of whom shouted out their thanks to us.
The event was a tremendous success and enjoyed by all. Across the 3 nights it was seen by more than 9000 people.
Thanks for going with our crazy ideas and sticking with it when the going got tough! We literally couldn’t have done it without you!
Big thanks from all of the Corn Exchange and 101 team.
It really was our pleasure!
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