We arrived at 9 p.m., parked at the West Oakland BART station and walked the block or so to the Fire Arts Festival. A gathering of local neighbors stood just outside the fence, watching. Giant hand-wrought metal sculptures — spiders, dragons, machines from the future/past — viewable from that distance, and from the BART trains passing by above, thumped and shook and spewed balls of fire high into the air.

We passed the LONG LINE of people waiting to pick up their Will Call tickets and grabbed our press passes from a separate window (lucky us) to enter what is probably the nearest (and most urban) approximation of Burning Man we'll ever attend. To clarify, we ourselves will never camp out in the desert to see giant art pieces spit fire into the night sky. So, if you are like us, this is the closest you may get to such an experience, and you can skip the dehydration.

The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival is an annual event. In its seventh year, this evening of interactive and passive-viewing fire art is nothing short of impressive, and unique. Despite the high price tag, $45 at the door for tonight's and tomorrow night's shows, the place gets packed, with many playa-types in fur vests, utilikilts and cowboy hats in attendance, as well as some of your more civilian folk, and kids and families.

One of our favorite attractions was the flame-free motor home filled with free-play pinball machines, courtesy of the Lucky Juju pinball museum in Alameda. We also watched, but did not volunteer for, a larger-than-life size version of Dance Dance Revolution (entitled "Dance Dance Immolation") in which volunteers donned giant silver flame-retardant suits and oxygen tubes to step in time to the instructions on the big-screen. For reasons we couldn't discern (they were doing well? / they weren't?) fire intermittently slammed the dancers -- from a frame in front of them, and from the top of the screen.

And, of course, there were fire trucks, fire extinguishers, and firemen, everywhere. Just in case.

Each night on the festival stage, fire dancers, acrobats, and the like perform. We were there to see the "Fire Odyssey," a show that blends Homer's famous tale with fire theater, acrobatics, ballet, and opera. The play begins nightly at about 10 p.m.

We wish we could tell you how it went.

Unfortunately for us, the thunderous bass of the sound system and the clouds of propane hanging thickly in the air triggered our protect-the-unborn-child alarm. As much as we wanted to be able to review the main event for you, due to our pregnancy-related heightened sense of smell need for comfort, we had to leave.

But, based on what we did see, we're sure the show was fabulous.

So, as long as you're not pregnant too, you should don your best Kevlar duds and hop on BART.

Tonight the event also features a "Fire & Light Soirée," a benefit to support the Crucible's educational programs: dinner and art auction, 6 – 9 p.m., ticket includes reserved seating for "Fire Odyssey;" $250 per person.

The Crucible's Seventh Annual Fire Arts Festival
Friday & Saturday 8 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Located in the parking lot across the street from 1260 7th Street, Oakland
510-444-0919
www.thecrucible.org

Photo credits:
(Top) Flaming Lotus Girls' "Serpent Mother,"
Photo by Julie Blaustein
(Middle) "Dance Dance Immolation," by Interpretive Arson, Photo by Kristen Ankiewicz.