All Souls Procession Finale (Flam Chen)

Tucson based Pyrotechnic Theatre Group Flam Chen gave an outstanding finale to the All Souls Procession last night. They used two high-lift cranes for parts of their performance. The short video above is of 13 aerial acrobats being lifted into the night sky by the crane. [sorry for the fuzzy quality of my night pics -- handheld P&S camera with a smallish aperture lens...]

Four of the suspended aerialists starting part of their fire routine

There are 13 performers hanging from the crane, 4 in the flames, one above the flames, and eight below. The crane would also move back and forth slowly.

red smoke, lots of red smoke

Remember the urn from last night's pictures of the procession? Holding the written prayers and notes that people had put in it during the earlier procession, here it is lowered by a 2nd crane to be set ablaze and send the messages skyward.

and being set aflame by an ET looking puppet...


and up, up it rises into the night sky with small ashes of memories falling back down into the crowd


Way neater than watching a ball drop on New Year's, I'd say...


This was such a neat experience... Celebrating life and death, people watching people, fun costumes, people carrying pictures of their departed loved ones and pets, old rituals, new rituals, people of all ages coming together in a meaningful, respectful, and fun community event.

[LINKS: I found someone else had posted a good video of parts of this year's finale on YouTube, better than my point and shoot footage, check it out here.]