Pyrotopia hopes to blaze trail for eastern fire-arts festivals

During the day, artist/musician/inventor Eric Singer builds musical robots. At night, he likes to watch stuff burn.

No, he's not an arsonist.

Singer, of Squirrel Hill, is an artist working with the still-obscure, but undeniably spectacular medium of fire. This Saturday, he has assembled Pittsburgh's first ever festival of "fire arts" -- Pyrotopia.

"Fire is my paintbrush, my sculptural medium," Singer says. "I do a lot of interactive computer-controlled fire stuff. For example, I have a game based on the electronic game Simon. You stand in the middle and there's a flamethrower in each corner. You have to follow the pattern of explosions. It gets one (blast) longer each time you do it, just like the game. There are buttons corresponding to each propane-based flame effect head."

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, Singer has long been a participant in Burning Man, the festival deep in the Nevada desert, which is partly kind of the Super Bowl for fire artists.

Pittsburgh's Pyrotopia will be the first fire-arts festival on the East Coast, says Singer -- interpreting "East Coast" as broadly as possible, of course. It's a fairly familiar discipline on the West Coast.

"We're not allowed to use the term 'flamethrower' in California," Singer says. "We used the term 'propane-based fire effects head,' or 'Poofers.' You get a little mini-explosion."

"I have a 100 percent safety record," he says.

Festival highlights will include "Fire-spinning, dancing, circus acts, fire fans, flamenco fire dancing," Singer says. "We'll also have a lot of interactive fire sculptures, like a 6-foot-tall Tesla Coil."

There will be a flamenco dancing performance involving fire by Carolina Loyola-Garcia, with live musical accompaniment. There also will be a ground-effects fireworks display from Pyrotecnico, a 120-year-old fireworks manufacturer based in New Castle.

The vendors will be artisans who work with fire: blacksmiths, welders, glass-blowers.

The main event is 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday. Beforehand, starting at noon, there will be events for children (believe it or not), presented with the Carnegie Science Center and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

"We've expanded the umbrella of fire art to include fire, light and electricity, glowpaint bubble art, building LED toys. The Science Center will do some cool demos involving table-top combustion and the scientific principles behind that stuff."

Pyrotopia will take place on the grounds of the Historic Pump House in Munhall, with the cooperation of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area. Children's events in the afternoon will be indoors. Night events will be outside.

"There's a history of the city being forged by fire," says Singer. "It's very appropriate to do it on the site of a former steel mill."