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[8:30-8:45 PM] We arrive at the PITS welcome party a little early and snag primo viewing seats at the center of the first terrace, then spend the next few minutes listening to Dead tunes, watching the dancers in the pot as they interact with two acrobats dressed in jester-like costumes. Towards the end of this segment, the acrobats usher a few crowd members up on stage for a low key dance contest.

[8:50 PM] Four drummers are working it out onstage with a very bland light show. The crowd is markedly less enthusiastic about this segment than the preceding dead tunes, and they respond somewhat indifferently as the players take solo turns at the front of the stage. Makes me feel sorry for the guys!

[8:53 PM] Time for fire dude number one? Nope, instead the show starts with a acrobat/gymnast guy doing a balancing act. He's impressive, but not what the crowd is looking for. The crowd offers tepid applause as he dismounts and bows before clearing the stage.

[8:57 PM] Another drum interlude

[8:59 PM] The fire show begins with two fire girls, each carrying two sticks and wearing burning headdresses. The don't do anything particularly complicated, but fire makes the crowd happy.

[9:00 PM] The girls are replaced by a fire dude wearing a strange open chested vest with long sleeves, and whirling whip chain fire pots. The dancing fire is hypnotic!

[9:02 PM] The girls return as the guy departs, each holding 8 flaming kebab sticks in a sort of fan-like holder. They proceed to do an entrancing dance with lots of arm waving. It doesn't seem to complicated (I bet I could learn it in 20 minutes), but the fire makes it cool, right?

[9:04 PM] Now we swap in two guys with flaming batons … They start by waving and twirling them, then the dudes separate about 10-12 feet and begin tossing the batons back and forth. Mi gusta!

[9:07 PM] The next act is a little hard to describe: a girl does a fire dance with a four or five foot long bar that has wheels of flame a-fixed to each end. Lots of twirling and a few lie tosses… Less dramatic than I expected at first sight.

[9:10 PM] Time for a drum interlude… One djembe drummer is missing at first, but he appears and joins the others a few seconds later. Maybe he was helping out out fires backstage?

[9:12 PM] The girls are back with flaming batons, soon joined by a dude who is waving two big flaming staves: make room!

[9:15 PM] While the dude finishes his solo staff routine, the girls swap their batons for flaming hula hoops: this seems a bit more exciting!

[9:17 PM] The dude is back with double offset square (an 8-pointed star) to twirl. Looks to me like it's made from 3/8 or bigger rebar. I bet it's damn heavy. Once it's lit and spinning, persistence of vision creates a terrific wheel of fire.

[9:19 PM] This must be the finale. The fire wheel guy is joined by the girls (one with a lengthy fire whip) and a better second dude who carefully juggles flaming pins. Pretty cool!

[9:20 PM] Apparently the fire show is done. If there was an announcement to that effect, I missed it: maybe it was friend out by the approving roar of the crowd as the performers bowed and left the stage. Now things change back to a GD dance party, starting with brief acrobatics from the crazy pinata dancers. We fail to see David or Kaila (apparently they're nearby), so we commence to rambling about on the crowded terraces surrounding the Sunrise pool for 20-30 min, checking out the craft booths, food, and other freaky people also wandering about. The layout of this part of the resort is full of steps and twists and turns, which results in a LOT of choke points where heads are congregating to socialize, blocking the path. We run into a few people we know … maybe a dozen at most? Always a good sign to see friendly faces! Strangely, we don't see most of those people at all during the rest of the weekend. Too many places throughout the resort to be hiding out, I guess!

Big thanks to Ting for the photo gallery!

<(wip)>

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2023 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2023 event list! ☸ On to the next event!