Thousands watch firebird go up in flames
PHOENIXVILLE >> As flames climbed high into the night sky, thousands gathered to watch a giant wooden phoenix statue burn brightly at the 15th annual Firebird Festival Dec. 8.
The giant blaze took place in Veteran’s Field, a new location for the popular event.
The Firebird Festival is held each December as a way to acknowledge the rebirth of the town in recent years and also to welcome the approaching winter solstice. The festival continues to grow each year, attracting people from all over the Philadelphia region and beyond.
“The burning of the phoenix is so much a part of Phoenixville,” Phoenixville Mayor Peter Urscheler said. “It’s a major festival and we get a get visitors from all over the East Coast. Last year, I met a couple from Boston who have come for the past 11 years. It’s incredible how much people love this event.”
Festivities ran all afternoon long in Phoenixville, beginning with a pub crawl at 12 p.m. Musicians and street performers entertained the crowds, leading up to the procession of the Firebird Parade, which followed the Schuylkill River Trail to Veteran’s Field.
Dozens of food and craft vendors were set up in the field, as fire spinners danced on top of the Firebird structure before it was set alight by torches carried in the parade.
“It’s such a symbolic event spe-
cifically for Phoenixville. The trail takes you through the old steel mill site, which is what gave Phoenixville its name. It’s really about the town’s namesake, the phoenix rising from the ashes, and coming together as a community to really build something beautiful together,” Urscheler said.
Urscheler noted, according to legend, in 1849 the founder of the steel mill looked into the furnace and saw a phoenix which inspired the name for Phoenix Steel. More than 150 years later, Phoenixville residents and festival attendees walked along the historic ground of the old steel mill to celebrate the Firebird that gave the town its name.
Festival organizer Henrik Stubbe Teglbjaerg designed the phoenix structure this year with help from numerous volunteers.
Construction began in September and continued every weekend. Built with donated lumber, this year’s phoenix stood 21 feet high with a 60-foot outstretched wingspan. The enormous bird’s head was articulated and swiveled from side to side.
Teglbjaerg credits his volunteers with getting creative and contributing their own ideas throughout the building process.
“I feel that’s my role every year. I’m just the holder of the space and create a space where people can add their ideas. I don’t want to syphon their creativity, I want to be open to whatever everybody else wants to do. It took a lot of work and time. The large pieces of lumber had to be bolted together,” Teglbjaerg said.
Teglbjaerg, who spent every night in his van parked next to the Firebird for weeks to protect it from possible vandalism, noted another important element of the festival was nurturing creativity in the Phoenixville community.
“My excuse for the festival is to allow a lot of people to be creative with one another. Creating this here and letting it go, is a process. We have way too much stuff in the world. To create something beautiful and letting it go, is a nice reminder for everybody what we are capable of. In a sense, it is something that we should all practice more,” he added.