BrightFire Music and Arts Festival

Start: Saturday, April 30, 2022 4:00PM
End: Saturday, April 30, 2022 10:00PM

BrightFire Music & Arts Festival

Music, Art, Fire, Dance, Nature - A beyond-imagination celebration of Life.

At BrightFire, enjoy and indulge in new local art and craftsmanship at the Night Market. Grab a bite to eat at one of the delicious food trucks, kick back at the Midnight Mulligan beer garden, make a flower crown, learn to dance at the maypole, play games in the field while listening to concerts with mesmerizing fire performances, and rendezvous at the fairy village for a tea party. All ages welcome!

Surround yourself in an imaginative artistic experience during the sunset fire-lighting show, premiering a new innovative music and dance piece by Anne Harris, Fred Dunlap, & THE MARK dance company.

Activities:
Mainstage Concerts + 5 intimate acoustic stages
Night Market (Art Show, Crafts, Designer, Innovation, Silent Auction)
Food Trucks, Craft Snacks, Beverages
Pilates (optional class @4:30 & 5:30)
Midnight Mulligan Beer Garden
Flower Crown Station - make your own!
Dance!
Fire Science, History, & Safety
Gardening (demonstrations, starter kits)
Field Games (Potions and Pixels)
Silent Auction (benefits Safe Alliance, donate).

Lineup:
Anne Harris (Blues/American Roots)
Tuatha Dea (Appalachian Rock)
Space Ballet (Trip-Hop Opera)
Master Kie & Your Neighborhood Orchestra
Hey Richard
& Several Others

Schedule:
4:00 - Gates open to Night Market, 5 Acoustic Stages, Silent Auction, Activities, Games, Garden Social, etc.
4:30 & 5:30 (optional) 2x 30-minute Pilates class
6:00 - Mainstage performances
8:10 - Sunset Fire-Lighting Ceremony
8:30 -10p: Mainstage performances

The festival is an innovative artist-led, community-based interpretation of the essence of Beltane. In Celtic tradition, Beltane marked the end of a cold, dark, life-and-death winter and the beginning of renewed life and summer. It is associated with fire, nature, renewed life and growth, joyful celebrations, and an important time in agricultural and pastoral life. Initially, herdsmen in Scotland, Ireland, and Man, would lead their cattle between bonfires to cleanse and prevent disease before entering into the new summer pastures. Ancient communities celebrated this changing season by playing music and dancing near the fires. They would extinguish their home hearths and relight them from the communal Beltane fires as a unifying practice.

BrightFire Festival is a celebration of Life. A production by Charlotte New Music in partnership with Historic Rural Hill, & THE MARK dance company. Silent Auction sales benefit Safe Alliance.