Cambridge’s Midwest Fire Fest is back to turn up the heat in June!

This year’s summer festival season in south central Wisconsin includes Cambridge’s iconic Midwest Fire Fest, scheduled for June 8 and 9.

Midwest Fire Fest’s one-of-a-kind offerings allow attendees to celebrate the elemental power of fire with a dynamic weekend full of creativity, community, food, music, and social experiences. Held in the village’s West Side Park, this year’s party promises more excitement for attendees as well as the Cambridge community.

Laurie Struss, director of Midwest Fire Fest and the Cambridge Arts Council said, “We believe the arts are a crucial economic development driver for our community,” The Arts Council presents the festival along with The Clay Collective.

One notable addition this year is the return of an iron pour.

“The Wisconsin Crew,” a group led by UW-Whitewater art department staff and former students, will melt hundreds of pounds of iron at the event, and cast the liquid metal into beautiful molds they’ve created. They’ll also offer the public a chance to make molds and create their own unique metal art.

In all, 21 artists from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and North Carolina will be showing, five of them for their first time at Midwest Fire Fest. Attendees are invited to shop, learn, and get involved in one of the eight different demonstrations put on by select artists.

Meet some of the artists:

Each piece of Aistheta jewelry is a small sculptural piece of wearable art that celebrates the natural world (and fire!). At Midwest Fire Fest, you can watch Julie create her nature-inspired, handcrafted jewelry using a technique known as fold-forming. Copper, sterling silver, or brass is heated repeatedly while folding, forging, and forming it. Then comes etching and traditional metalsmith techniques to create beautiful organic pieces.

Glen Cutcher is a longtime (incredible) Cambridge potter and Clay Collective member. He worked at Rowe Pottery with some of the other local luminaries back in the day. Creating pottery since 1978, he draws inspiration from nature, notably rock formations and landscapes.

Timothy’s preferred medium is metal, mainly utilizing steel, stainless steel or aluminum, but that doesn’t stop him from mixing in wood and stone when the opportunity arises. He draws inspiration from his surroundings, life events, nature and believe his work best represents abstract sculpture, given its geometric influence. Make sure you check out Fused by Fire Metal Works!

Tony and Mindy Winchester are our good pals at Winchester Pottery. When this husband-and-wife team creates a new piece, they search for rich surfaces, depth of color, contrasts in texture, refinement and attention to detail. They love layering slips and glazes and use a cone 10 reduction kiln or a salt kiln. Super gorgeous stuff.

Blacksmithing has been in Sam Laturi’s blood for over 27 years. From inspiration to installation, he creates ironwork at StormCloak Forge, LLC that lasts a lifetime. Sam takes pride in designing and creating everything from simple roses to complex commercial installations. Sam will be demonstrating with his awesome 1910’s coal forge, travel smithy, stories, and anecdotes to entertain and educate!

Gloria VanDixhorn, Crystal McParland, Christine Konen and Jewel Millard are four Midwest women brought together by clay, a passion for fire, and the dream of building their own kiln. They’ve grown into a strong supportive sisterhood enriching each other through the constant evolution of individual clay devotions, sharing the inspiration of their rural upbringings, other strong women, deep wilderness, and whimsy. Check out the beautiful work from the Wisconsin Kiln Sisters.

Representing the eastern edge of the great Midwest, Sam Hitchman Ceramics comes to us from Cincinnati, along with his awesome thrown and altered vessels made with porcelaneous stoneware. He uses numerous house-made slips & glazes, which are dipped and sprayed to enhance the sculptural forms, all inspired by the lines and colors found in nature.

Experience the masterful convergence of precision and creativity with Barbara Mann’s exquisite jewelry creations. Each piece is a testament to beautiful technique and an innovative design ethos. Barbara meticulously harnesses the allure of dichroic glass, undergoing a rigorous process where each piece is expertly cut, cold-worked, layered, and kiln-fired under stringent controls of timing and temperature. Her artistry extends further as she skillfully etches intricate patterns chemically into each design, while also integrating the vibrant hues of anodized titanium to transcend the glass’s natural splendor. The result is a mesmerizing collection that embodies uniqueness in every aspect. Join Barbara of Stormy Originals at Midwest Fire Fest to check out these wonders firsthand!

Dawn Donati art joins glass and metal, bringing exciting colors, shapes and patterns to life through her functional and decorative work. Dawn believes that art has a voice – hear it for yourself at Midwest Fire Fest!

Angie of A.H. Szabo Designs and Brian Szabo Sicangu Artist create jewelry and objet d’art with natural materials including silver, brass, bronze, stone, horn and bone, which reflect their natural surrounds. Brian’s work speaks to his cultural roots as a Sicangu Lakota, seen in his design work and his use of bone, horn, pipe stone, and functional objects as well as jewelry. Angie works with a variety of techniques to play with texture, form, and color to create both wearable and decorative works that celebrate our local environment.

Beautiful Bruce started Bruce Johnson Clay Studio in 1993, and this ball-o-fire has created thousands of high-fire stoneware that features the Raku process: wheel-thrown clay which is altered with hand-built additions and fired to cast unique, dynamic and exciting images on his work. A member of The Clay Collective, his decorative and functional work represents his desire to provide an interactive and meaningful part in other’s lives.

John Lupiezowiec is one of our secret weapons. He is a huge part of the sculpture support team and has been an integral part in crafting our larger-than-life kiln that houses the giant fire sculpture since the fest’s inception. (He also created the jaw-dropping sculpture of Max and one of the Wild Things.) At Blooming Metal Studios, he also creates gorgeous flowers made from copper, brass, and steel which will be featured at the Fest.

Steve Heuer’s “Drifts” are a reflection of his love of nature and the art therein. He strives to evoke a sense of movement and capture some of the natural art our planet creates: waves, snow and sand-drifts. Steve presses the natural forms found in nature into slabbed-clay, like prairie plants, fossils, shells, and other organic lifeforms. Meet Steve and see these Braided Waters at this year’s Midwest Fire Fest!

Amanda Langer Artworks is an exploration into the contrasting and conflicting natures between metal, fiber and the potential harmony therein. By exploring the dualities within the materials, she challenges the assumed nature of the world around us. Even us! Check it out and see how Amanda investigates cool combinations in new and surprising ways, striving for visual metaphors to illuminate the infinite potential that our individual selves and societal groups have to work together and achieve peace.

AND MORE!!!

Meet your Sculptor:

Food & Entertainment:

Other fun that weekend will include fire dancer performances, six bands, eight food trucks including Alex’s Greek Food, Buddha Belly wood fired pizza, Cinn City Smash, Doyle’s Dogs,  Jakarta Cafe, Julie’s Real Mexican Food, Cambridge Market, SoHo Gourmet Cuisines & Amaco AND the big firing reveal, the climax of the weekend. A six-foot tall clay sculpture weighing over 1,000 pounds that will be constructed on site and fired for six days at 1,000 degrees in a custom-made 12 ft. kiln before its reveal Saturday night, June 8. The reveal has been a huge crowd pleaser in years past, as volunteers toss sawdust onto the sculpture, causing fire to dramatically shoot up into the air.

In the lead-up prior to the event, Midwest Fire Fest is also promoting Cambridge-area businesses via the “Fire, Food and Fun Tour.” The tour will feature food and drink items from Cambridge-area establishments that are created by flame, fire, smoke or have a hot and spicy kick.

Mark Skudlarek of Cambridge Wood Fired Pottery, a co-founder and creative director of the event said, “The experiences we offer at Midwest Fire Fest are truly one-of-a-kind, So we’re inviting everyone to join us for a weekend that promises to be not just fun, but a ‘can’t miss’ event with all kinds of unforgettable experiences.”

Discover this vibrant and blazing festival by watching Discover Wisconsin’s original short, ‘Jefferson County’s Midwest Fire Fest’ now: