Battersea Fire Garden by Carabosse

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A couple of months ago, I mentioned "Fire Garden" to one of my friends and looked it up in a search engine to discover that actually they were going to be in London for the Totally Thames Festival, which was rebranded this year from "Thames Festival", as it was known in previous years. I was excited, and this was the top event on my "Totally Thames" schedule. I saw them in Milton Keynes in 2012 with a friend as the Salisbury Fire Garden event that my partner and I had planned to attend was rained out a week or so before. (Photographs of the Milton Keynes Fire Garden can be seen in my post here.)

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The ticketing was a bad joke, unfortuantely. I actually would not have minded paying for the ticket so that I was guaranteed entry. A couple of times each day for a couple of weeks, I took a peek on the website to see if booking had opened, and when they announced that that tickets were randomly given to those who sign up, I was beyond gutted. I was gutted because it was not "first come, first served", as I have never had luck with winning anything. After registering with a couple of different email address and getting a couple of friends to register on my behalf, I was not lucky.  Surprise, surprise!

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I decided to turn up by myself after work on the Friday (the day that I wanted to attend) and hope for the best. When I arrived at 6:00, about ten people were already in the "non-ticket-holder" queue in front of me. I waited. I watched the ticket-holder queue get a bit longer. Then, when the queue started to disappear inside, a few people in that queue announced that they had extra tickets. It is no surprise that these people had signed up for multiple tickets and got lucky with the "random ticket ballot" twice. This is why this random ballot ticketing system does not work. The same person enters multiple times, and they get extra tickets. In a few cases, it was people who ordered four tickets, but only some of the people turned up. I was gutted with this whole ticket system. Rant over.

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A nice lady had an extra "single person only" ticket to Fire Garden, so I jumped at the chance after the two single people ahead of me got previous offers from other ticket holders. Since I live outside of London, I was worried about staying too late to catch my train home. When I arrived inside the venue, the lights were just starting to be lit and the sun had yet to set. Bars and food stands were available, and I ordered a cocktail and waited for the light to fade.

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The Fire Garden was held at Battersea Power Station, which is one of London's most iconic buildings. The power station featured on an album cover by Pink Floyd. The building has been unused for years now, and there was talk that it may be torn down. The Nine Elms area, including the Battersea Power Station, are actually being regenerated at the moment. Battersea Power Station will contain housing and cafes/restaurants once it has finished. At the moment, it is an empty shell.

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Fire Garden is the work of French arts company Carabosse. Sculpture, fire, music and smell play a part to create stunning works of art. While walking around, the warmth and heat of the fires added another dimension to this work, as well as the smokey smell and fumes given off. The sculptures also move or erupt with smoke and flame, and some make a noise when they move, and this adds another level to the experience as the viewer awaits and examines the metal frames and figures.

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A large collection of glowing orbs was displayed along the Thames, with the silhouettes of metal cranes in the background.

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Sculptures covered with fire moved and changed shape before our eyes.

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New for the company, and the highlight of the Battersea Fire Garden, is the chandalier made of flames. The Battersea Power Station itself was turned into a flaming sculpture as strands of flames hung from its brickwork.

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Some of the sculptures of figures were a little more interactive, such as the two below. One uses a watering can, and the other has a torch pointed at a fountain. Others has faces with expressions, and one even had a clock face.

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Some of the sculptures could blow flames out of stacks when a wheel was turned. 

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My photographs came out alright considering that I did not bring my tripod as I was not sure that I would get access to the Fire Garden. (I used a tripod and manual settings for my SLR digital camera in Milton Keynes, and the results are noticably better.) 

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The Fire Garden is on for a final night on Saturday night. For those who do not have tickets, turn up early and hope that someone who was lucky enough to get tickets has a spare. According to their website, they do let non-ticket holders in after a certain length of time.

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