If you live in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States and haven't heard of PEX, you owe it to yourself to check them out at some point. It's essentially a collective of creatives who live and operate out of Philly and throw some of the most amazing Burning Man inspired parties you'll ever see. Last year they started an event that is a hybrid of a music festival and a burn that takes place in Northern Maryland over the 4th of July weekend and I was delighted to return to it this year.

Last year's festival was notable to me for pulling together some of the top firespinning talent on the East Coast into one place so that many of us who only get to see each other a few times a year got to spend a weekend partying and geeking together. Saturday night last year, a posse including Conway, DJ, Sticky, Justin, Lucky, Liana, Dale, and many others gathered at the Pavilion for what turned out to be one of the most epic fire jams I've ever been a part of. I was very amused to see that the PEX organizers had formalized the ad-hoc fire jam into an event in the What Where When guide this year.

This year's talent built on last year's pool and expanded it dramatically: this year Baz, Noel, and Aileen joined us with more than a few mind-blowing workshops and performances in their own right. Noel had some fun new poi tech that I'll probably be blogging on this week utilizing isolated pendulums and CAP vs pendulum hybrids that opens up all kinds of fun possibilities for timing and direction shifts that I'm eating up right now. His double staff class was also brilliant and more than ever has reminded me that I badly need to start budgeting myself time to putz with doubles in an open-ended manner as though I have the technical skill to pull off a lot of advanced doubles stuff I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm so comfortable with them that I can easily flow between elements in a five minute set like I can poi.

I continue to be amazed by the number of people out there who are downloading my videos. Most folks I knew from outside DC greeted me with an instant congratulations for having reached 100 tech blogs. It's definitely a lesson that no matter how niche you think you are, there's always an element of bleeding more mainstream in anything you create.

Highlights of the weekend included seeing Jeff from ADHK continue to expand his staff repertoire. His style is so unique, coming from a fusion of martial arts and breakdancing, that it makes grip staff feel fresh and dangerous again. For the first time in a long time I'm seeing him break out new grip techniques I didn't know existed. Philly's Scorch fire collective had a performance on Friday night I actually managed to get to see despite arriving vastly later than intended that was gorgeously epic. Jen Longo had one of the most beautiful fan solos I've ever seen her perform...effortlessly bringing together her ballet background with techy fans to create something really original. She later claimed that due to costume mishap she'd been unable to perform the piece as she intended: en pointe. I cannot imagine how badass it would have been if she had.

The battle with lack of sleep is ongoing...if anybody knows of any specially designed tents or sleeping bags to tame 90+ degree temperatures and a blazing sun so a body can sleep during the day, let me know. One of these days I swear I'll be at a festival where I'm not a zombie for most of my time there if for no other reason than it's safer. My last night definitely got to the point where I was losing coordination at an alarming rate as the night went on.

PEX SF definitely gets two thumbs up from this attendee. Check it out next year if you're in the region and want a great way to spend the 4th of July.