Wow.
At least 400 people, if not more gathered just north of Montrose harbour near Lake Michigan in Chicago last night for what I would call a pure form of performance art and joy.
There where guys on stilts, girls hooping, bright colored hair, dreads, happy dresses and smiles everywhere. The main attraction was in the center of a roped off area, the fire performers. I saw a girl with a fan in each hand, the wide ends of which had balls of fire. She would wave them around creating graceful arcs in the lowering light. There was a man with double ended fire sticks doing what looked like a hawaiian fire dance. Another guy had a whips of fire in each hand, flailing them up into the sky! Fire breathers blasted out gouts of dragon breath, just stunning!
Next to this circle was the drummers, a ring with over 70 random percussion instruments joyfully beating a free flowing jazz like song, with rhythms changing in synchronization from one idea to the next. The result was a very powerful backdrop to all the fun.
If you've ever been to a grateful dead concert, you know the vibe, but instead of everyone aiming at a stage, we where aiming at each other.
