800+ People Attended a
“Small” Fire Show
A free family-friendly fire show in a brand new space in Cork City.
No marketing or PR budgets, no marketing or PR teams.
The Community
Fire Show
Part of Pitch’d Circus and Street Arts Festival 2025. The festival received no festival funding, and this was the opening event of the festival. An event and a huge marketing opportunity for the rest of the festival. The fire performers were composed of Circus Factory’s community and friends.
Photo credits:
Artists: Circus Cake, Moss Russell, Kate O Shea,
Eimear Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, Molly O’ Brien
Photographer: Noel Sweeney
Marketing the Fire Show
Getting the Word Out
I relied heavily on PR to spread awareness of the free fire show. This was also the first event to be held in the new Marina Park.
Many press releases were sent to online and traditional news outlets. I spread the message through the festival media partners Cork’s 96fm and C103fm, and Cork Independent. I also used Pitch’d and Circus Factory’s organic tools, like email marketing and social media.
The icing on the cake? We kept the location a secret until exactly a week beforehand. The marketing was promoting a fire show without a location. People were encouraged to join the newsletter to be notified of the location announcement.
Photo credits:
Artist: Molly O’ Brien
Photographer: David Hegarty
Cork Beo Fire Show article
Press release about fire show on EchoLive.ie
Write up and photos in the Cork Independent
Cork's 96fm sharing details about the fire show
Getting a Large Audience at the Event
A single sided show turned 360 degrees
What was intended to be a show played to a single-sided audience turned into a 360 degree show. Over 800 people came out late on a Friday evening to join the fire spectacle. And that was with just one week of the public knowing the location.
Audiences came from all directions to the park and found space at every side of the show. Artists rehearsed playing to one side, but quickly adjusted to entertain the crowd all around. I took this video at the finale of the show to get a glimpse of the audience present, which also became our thank you video to capitalise on the momentum of the show as we dived into the festival programme.
Photo credits:
Artists: Circus Cake, Moss Russell, Kate O Shea, Eimear Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh, Molly O’ Brien, Brian O Mahony, Carlos Asorbe, Haj Murphy, Jude O Neill, Tyrone Phillips, Luc O’Rourke
Videographer: Megan Cronin (Marketing Meg)
Header photo:
Artists: Luc O’Rourke, Carlos Asorbe,
Photographer: Noel Sweeney