Giant granny will visit Geneva this autumn
The Local - [email protected]
Published: 6 Sep, 2017 CET.
Updated: Wed 6 Sep 2017 10:33 CET
Visitors to Geneva at the end of September are likely to come across an 8m tall grandmother parading through the streets.
The giant granny and her 6m tall granddaughter are two of the puppets featuring in The Saga of the Giants, a piece of street theatre devised by French company Royal de Luxe that will be presented in the Swiss city from September 29th to October 1st.
Some 700,000 spectators are expected to turn up for the free event, which has already been seen in several other cities around the world.
Founded in 1979 by director Jean-Luc Courcoult, Nantes-based Royal de Luxe has made a name for itself with its giant puppet spectacles such as The Sultan’s Elephant, which toured the world including London in 2006.
Photo: Royal de Luxe/Valery Joncheray
The company has been invited to Geneva by the Théâtre de Carouge and the Geneva government, which hopes the event will be “one of the biggest cultural events in the history of the canton, even Switzerland,” councillor Sami Kanaan told newspaper 20 Minutes.
The event doesn’t come cheap; it is expected to cost 2.2 million francs – 1.8 million of which will come from the private sector – as well as additional costs for security and transport modifications on the parade route, said the paper.
But that should be compensated by the economic boost to Geneva's bars, restaurants and hotels.
Geneva Tourism’s Lucie Gerber told the paper it was impossible to put a figure on it, but that the event would certainly be good for the city both financially and in terms of projecting a positive image of the city.
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The giant granny and her 6m tall granddaughter are two of the puppets featuring in The Saga of the Giants, a piece of street theatre devised by French company Royal de Luxe that will be presented in the Swiss city from September 29th to October 1st.
Some 700,000 spectators are expected to turn up for the free event, which has already been seen in several other cities around the world.
Founded in 1979 by director Jean-Luc Courcoult, Nantes-based Royal de Luxe has made a name for itself with its giant puppet spectacles such as The Sultan’s Elephant, which toured the world including London in 2006.
Photo: Royal de Luxe/Valery Joncheray
The company has been invited to Geneva by the Théâtre de Carouge and the Geneva government, which hopes the event will be “one of the biggest cultural events in the history of the canton, even Switzerland,” councillor Sami Kanaan told newspaper 20 Minutes.
The event doesn’t come cheap; it is expected to cost 2.2 million francs – 1.8 million of which will come from the private sector – as well as additional costs for security and transport modifications on the parade route, said the paper.
But that should be compensated by the economic boost to Geneva's bars, restaurants and hotels.
Geneva Tourism’s Lucie Gerber told the paper it was impossible to put a figure on it, but that the event would certainly be good for the city both financially and in terms of projecting a positive image of the city.
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