Solstice Party Sculptures 2024

34th annual solstice party

My family has been putting on an outdoor winter solstice party for about 34 years now. It has evolved over time, slowly escalating from a simple campfire in our front yard to fire sculpture event. It would not be accurate to say that it was a conscious ritual in the manner of a sand mandala, building something epic and sweeping it away to represent the transitory nature of life.

Really we’re just having fun but if if the flaming shoe fits why not wear it?

Oh, because it’s on fire and a burned foot would be no fun at all.

Tensegrity Thing

My dad got really interested in messing around with tensegrity strucures this year. He made a bunch of small ones and then dramatically scaled up the design into this huge heavy beast. It got a little off kilter when we were pulling it out of the barn. It was so top heavy and leaning a little bit that I was worried it was going to be more than a little dangerous and thought we should get it burned early.

Before

Before we moved it all the corner chains were taught. Only the vertical chain in the middle is holding the top up.

During

After

After all my shouty lecturing, telling everyone to stand back and be careful, for the ages it took this thing to burn, it just collapsed straight down and didn’t do anything extraordinarily dangerous on its way out.

Goldenrod tower

Some year-old Christmas trees and carpet tubes got burned next but I mostly missed those while I was running around doing hosty-type things. And then the goldenrod tower went on. These aren’t official names or anything, just sometimes you need names for things to write about them.

Before

During

I’m really glad those fan blades don’t fly further than they do when they come off.

The Son of Man

I think The Son of Man was the next to go on. My dad has made a variety of homage style creations over the past few years.

Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. —René Magritte

Before

During

Woodcock

I think the woodcock went on next. The fan was transplanted from the tensegrity thing but it survived somehow.

Before

While they were getting this on the fire a bunch of people started doing the woodcock dance.

During

Bark tower

I think the bark tower was my favorite. The smoke pouring out of if with the fan going was really fascinating. It might have been one that photos don’t really do justice but it was so cool.

Before

Brought to you by the Emerald Ash Borer

During

Krampus

Krampus is a frequently recurring character at the party.

Before

During

Until Next Year

Looking forward to a few days of rest and staying cozy.

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