DRAGON ARTS' FIRE CELEBRATIONS!

Guy Faulkes at the Fire Celebrations The first stage of the European Fire Celebrations trans-national project was a huge success, with Cyrenians hosting the Wales visit in the run-up to November 5th 2007. Partners from Tuejar (Spain) Izmir (Turkey) and Alborg (Denmark) arrived to participate with DAL staff and members in cultural activities and workshops for the traditional bonfire night celebrations.

Highlights of the week included:

An evening of traditional Welsh food and drinks at the Cyrenians Community Centre, superbly cooked and arranged by centre staff.
Lantern and pottery workshops at DAL, and the creation of a giant mobile Guy.
Visits to the Gower Heritage Centre, Worm’s Head, the Museum of Welsh Life and Cardiff
Breakfast and an audio-visual screening of the project, held at the community centre, along with presentations to the oversees visitors – and an interview with national Spanish radio !!

Visitors from , Denmark, Turkey and Spain But the pinnacle of the event and its focus, was the parade of lanterns and the Guy (brilliantly brought to life by Dave) down a Gower country lane to the bonfire, fire jugglers and the magical lit display in the Down to Earth field. As Mustafa, one of the Turkish partners, said ‘Bonfire night was perfect. I have never seen such a night before’. Everyone who took part in the parade and witnessed the scene in Gower will remember it for a long time to come. Even Pepe, the normally shy and retiring Project Coordinator, and a man of few words, was moved to comment ‘I’ll never forget these days’. Most importantly the week provided a foundation of friendship between our projects that will steadily grow over time.

The next stage will move to Tuejar, near Valencia, in March next year. The Fallas celebrations in Spain represent the biggest fire festival in the world, so it should be a spectacular event. Viva Tuejar !

Here is a Video of the Week's Events

Update

In July 2009, Dragon Arts ran a series of workshops based on learning practises and artistic techniques gained from the multicultural exchange visit to Tuejar, Spain.

Members made papier mache puppets called 'ninots' in Spanish which were to be placed around a bonfire. On July 27th we built a wooden bonfire monument at the rear of our premises. We followed the same theme as the Spanish 'fallas' bonfire and recreated a 'Dragon Arts building' out of wood and cardboard.

This was decorated by staff and members. The fire was broadcast on the internet to all the partner countries via webcam so they could participate in 'real time'. It was a huge success and lots of fun. The next stage of the European Fire Celebrations will take place in Izmir, Turkey in October 2009.