Over ten thousand people gathered together in central Milton Keynes on Saturday 21^st October to experience an eclectic evening of theatre, dance, music and spectacular pyrotechnics created by world renowned outdoor arts experts, Walk the Plank. The ‘Feast of Fire’ event was part of Milton Keynes’ 50^th birthday celebrations.

Leading up to the event, Rothschild Foundation funding enabled event producers, The Stables, to provide ten young people with the opportunity to work alongside Walk the Plank. The intensive four day training course allowed young people, who are not in education, employment or training, to learn skills in design, pyrotechnics and project management. They then put these new skills to the test to deliver the final staging of Feast of Fire with Walk the Plank’s Creative and Technical team.  Following the event young trainees are benefitting from a network for future opportunities to work in the outdoor arts sector locally, nationally and internationally.

The young people’s work was seen by the 10,000 strong crowd who attended the event. As Monica Richards, Artistic Director of The Stables explains, not even Storm Brian could dampen the spirits of the young trainees: “I was particularly pleased that we were able to light the fire drawing designed and built by the young trainees and it was a special moment to watch them jumping around with joy and pride even in the lashing rain!”.