Fire performer hire in Australia: the complete guide

Fire is the one booking where the venue's answer matters more than the performer's. Plenty of Australian sites simply will not allow it: anything indoors, most marquees, sites under trees, function centres with sprinklers, venues with a strict lease, and any council reserve during a total fire ban. Sort that out first, then go looking for a performer.

When it does get the green light, nothing else on this site competes for a night time crowd. The prices below are live from the fire acts listed here. A short show sits at the lower end, and a longer booking with more performers, a choreographed finish and a rigged setup sits well above it.

The live range is in the table below, city by city. A solo performer doing one ten minute set in a back garden is the cheapest version of this. Add performers, add sets, add a soundtrack and a lighting plan, and you're buying a production rather than a novelty, which the quote reflects.

Fuel, safety gear and the extra hour of setup and cool down are in every quote whether they're itemised or not. So is the safety person, and a good act will not work without one. If a quote looks dramatically cheaper than the rest, that's usually what's missing.

The usual working number is a clear circle of around five metres across for one performer, more for a group and more again for anything spinning on long chains. Above it you need open sky, not a tree canopy, a shade sail, a pergola or a marquee roof. Around it you need guests held back behind a line that somebody is actually enforcing.

Underneath it you want concrete, pavers, dirt or wet grass rather than dry grass, bark chips or decking. Fuel drips. That's normal and it's why the surface matters. Ask the performer what they need under their feet and have the venue confirm it in writing, because a function manager remembering a phone call is worth nothing at eight o'clock on the night.

Rules change by state, by council and by the day. Some venues need nothing more than their own approval. Others want notification to the fire service, a site specific risk assessment, a permit, or a fire extinguisher and a trained operator on site. Total fire ban days override all of it, and in a hot dry summer that's a real risk for an outdoor December booking.

Ask the performer what they normally supply: most established fire acts carry a public liability certificate, a written risk assessment and their own extinguisher and fire blanket. But ask, and get the documents emailed to you and the venue. We list acts and we don't check anyone's paperwork, so the only reliable version is the one you have in your inbox.

Poi and staff are the compact end: rhythmic, close to the body, workable in a smaller space. Fire fans and palm torches look spectacular in photographs and stay fairly contained. Whips, ropes and long chains throw fire a long way and need a much bigger circle. Fire breathing is a separate skill with its own risk profile, and many professionals have stopped doing it entirely.

Fire eating and body burns read strongly at close range and suit a small crowd around a performer. A large group choreographed to music suits a big open site and an audience at distance. Tell the act your space and your crowd size and let them pick the tools. That's the conversation that produces a good show.

Fire needs darkness. Sunset in an Australian summer is late, so a January wedding wanting a fire show before dinner is often asking for the impossible. Check the sunset time for your date first, then build the slot at least half an hour after it. In winter you have the opposite luxury and can put the show almost anywhere in the evening.

Then agree a wind and rain policy when you book, in writing. Most acts have a cut off wind speed and will switch to LED equipment rather than cancel, and many of the same performers carry both kits for exactly this reason. Knowing that in advance turns a ruined moment into a swapped one.

How much clear space do you need, and how high? What surface can you work on? Do you bring your own safety person and extinguisher? Can you send us your insurance certificate and risk assessment for the venue? And what happens if it's windy, wet or there's a fire ban on our date?

Send the venue's answer to the performer and the performer's answer to the venue. Most of the problems with fire bookings happen in the gap between those two, where each assumed the other had approved something.