It's getting hot out there
Once a year a group of artist and technically inclined pyromaniacs make their way to a remote corner of the world. They hang out, listen to strange music, build giant art projects, and then set them on fire. No, I’m not talking about Burning Man, I am of course referring to The Crucible’s Annual Incredibly Dangerous Festival (or as the organizer’s optimistically refer to it, the Fire Arts Festival).
Instead of deserted desert playa safely nestled in the middle of nowhere Nevada, the Incredibly Dangerous Festival takes over an empty parking lot under a perfectly good highway in West Oakland.
For the ninth(???) consecutive year The Crucible (a very “San Francisco” organization that teaches tech geeks and hippies alike how to weld, cast metal, blow glass, etc) has somehow convinced the city of Oakland to provide them with unfettered rights to create massive fire and napalm spewing creations.
And the only thing separating you (ME!) and the rest of the visitors (including a myriad of children innocently roaming about) from the giant gaseous fire goblins are a handful of bike rack barricades that gently suggest “you may not want to enter here lest you are engulfed in flame.”
But even if inadvertently being set on fire isn’t your idea of a good time, the Incredibly Dangerous Festival offered something weird for just about every San Franciscan, including:
A Burning Heart!
A Unicorn!
Shooting a Flamethrower!
A Didgeridoo!!!
Assuming the city of Oakland doesn’t start valuing human life in the next twelve months, the Incredibly Dangerous Festival should be back next year!
San Francisco is Weird 