Team Magic House comprising of Philip, Diane and Chris Butler - Managing Directer of Castle Fine Arts Foundry, were selected for the June 2006 Ischgl Fire Festival in Austria, organised by Gebhard Schatz.

We arrived in a dramatic thunderstorm amongst the beautiful mountains at the welcoming Hotel Martha, after a ferry journey and long drive across Europe in Chris Butler’s car. All the teams stayed at this hotel which was a short walk from the fire sculpture site.

We made our fire sculpture initially on dry land, which was then flooded to provide the small lake. It was interesting to meet the teams from the other countries - Norway, Sweden, Russia and two teams from Austria. We compared methods of making fire sculptures and became friends over the days of the event. The fire competition was fantastic fun, exciting to see each sculpture set on fire in turn in front of a big crowd.

Magic House and the Russian Team won joint first prize.