The Giants in Perth

We heard there were giants in Perth, so planned to attend day two of the Perth International Arts Festival and follow the Giant’s epic journey in Perth. Now these weren’t the New York Giants, the Greater Western Sydney Giants, or were they from the Valley of the Giants. No, these giants were all the way from France.  Royal de Luxe from Aix en Provence in fact, bought two enormous Marionettes to the City of Perth for a spectacular three day event, The Giants in Perth.

Unable to attend the first day on Friday 13^th, we planned to spend Saturday 14^th following the Giants. The city was already going to be busy with The Perth Fringe Festival, the Perth Travel Expo, Roxette concert and the Perth Wildcats game all scheduled, and of course, it was also Valentine’s Day. Expectations were that a million people would be flocking to the city to watch two monster sized mechanical puppets.

The story unfolds with the first Giant, a six metre little girl arrived in Perth on Friday 13^th in search of her uncle, the diver. Made of timber, metal and rope, she is controlled by a team of 25 puppeteers pulling strings to make her move. She spent the day walking the streets, searching, before making her way down to Langley Park where she slept the night in her plus sized bed. On Saturday, after she awoke, she showered, and continued with her search once more.

Train patrons arriving in the city on Saturday morning were surprised when faced with a huge sleeping diver near the city station. It was amazing to see the crowds gather, and I mean huge crowds watching as the 11 metre driver awoke late morning and began walking through the city streets. He was massive, really impressive, and at his size he is certainly not a puppet, but a monster size marionette.

He is controlled by 44 Lilliputians who are an attraction in themselves using cranes and pulleys, as they leapt into the air hanging onto the ropes controlling the giant Diver.  It is a mix of hydraulics, motorisation and human kinetic energy to make him move. 20 Lilliputians scamper up to swing from the ropes whilst a trio out front control his eyes, mouth and torso remotely. Watching was impressive, but making the gargantuan would have been an epic task.

He weighs 3 tonne, his shoe size is 237 with each massive boot weighing 214kg. The trousers he wears are 100kg and took 120m of fabric.  He made his way walking through the city, but as he was unable to fit under a footbridge, the diver was lifted over by a crane, to the music of Mission Impossible.

It was amazing to watch, but there was still plenty to see in the city today.

From near the railway station we made our way over the horseshoe bridge and into Northbridge Piazza. There were many pop up food stalls and a bar. We stop for some lunch and a refreshing beverage. For a relatively small city, Perth is great at utilising the space. A short stroll and we find ourselves in the midst of the biggest arts installation in Perth, State Library of WA, Art Gallery of WA and WA Museum. This space both absorbs and reflects the creativity surrounding it, this is an artistic dream. Immediately opposite the Art Gallery of WA is the Urban Orchard which is a paved area. Now it’s planted out with seasonal plants and a variety of fruit, vegetables, and herbs on display.

There are usually buskers or street performers around to provide entertainment, and today was no exception.

We came across an act just setting up, Hardey from Flying Heart Productions. His act is a comedy, improvised mime, where he combines juggling and audience interaction. The crowds soon grew and along with them we stopped and enjoyed the show.

After the show and some lunch we finally caught up with the little girl giant. It was breathtaking to finally see her in person. She was sleeping in a park but still the crowds were in awe watching as she slept, breathing courtesy of air hoses and bellows in her chest. She is 6 metres tall and wearing a green dress which weighs 30kg. Her hair, made from 70 horses tails weighs 6.5kg.

As she would be asleep for some time we decide to head down to the Convention and Exhibition Centre to the Travel Expo.  Escaping the crowds outside, we have a look around, gather some brochures and information for our end of year trip to Europe and in particular, Paris.

After gathering some resources for our trip we head back into the city and the crowd was growing even larger, there must be hundreds of thousands of people gathering now. We watched in awe as they manoeuvred a large boat into position which was going to be used to take the little girl back down to Langley Park.  The crowds continued to grow and slowly we saw the little girl come into view as she walked towards the boat. She was licking a lollypop and had her shoes and socks taken off before being lifted up and into the boat. She was assisted on with her yellow raincoat and hat to keep her dry from the water spray and the boat slowly takes her away.

It was a once in a lifetime experience to see the diver and the little girl who is not so little at all. They are massive and very impressive. After seeing them in person, their expressions and movement you realise the logistics of bringing such an event as this to Perth was as enormous as the giants themselves. First the cost, bought here by Perth International Arts Festival, it was quoted the event cost $5.4 million.

The massive marionettes require a team of 70 people to move the machinery that suspends them and more than 300 volunteers to help them navigate the streets of Perth. Three median strips in the city and several traffic poles had to be removed, parking areas closed, public transport ceased and streets closed off to all transport in rolling closures.

When the giants left Perth they boarded a barge and made their exit from the city along with a flotilla of vessels escorting them.

Only once before has Perth seen a convoy of this size and that was in 1983 when Australia II headed by Alan Bond bought home the Auld Mug for the first time in 132 years when he won the America’s Cup. In all my years in Perth I have never seen the city so vibrant, full of life and engaged and even Premier Colin Barnett said he believed this once in a lifetime event has released Perth from its Dullsville tag.

I guess there will likely be the knockers, but my opinion is this was a huge success, seen by the raw numbers who attended. Easily the best attended event in Perth ever, even with the other events on in Perth. This was a most spectacular event enjoyed by all ages from children, parents, grandparents and everyone in between. Confirmation of how real the giants expressions and movements were was when the little girl giant looked our way and a child nearby excitedly said “mummy, the little girl looked at me!”.

It was reported 1.4 million people, more than half of the population of the whole state of Western Australia visited this 3 day event. Travelling the globe transforming towns and villages into huge theatrical spaces from Nantes, Morocco, Cameroon, China, New Zealand and Mexico, this was the first time the Giants made it to Australia, and we even beat USA to host them.

We made our way back to the train station where the crowd were still arriving to see more of the giants, but we had other plans to finish our Valentine’s night.

Finally back to the suburb where we live, we collect our picnic chairs and blankets and travel to our local park. Tonight in a special event for Valentine’s Day we join our local community to watch the sinfully delicious free movie in the park, Chocolat which coincidently was released on Valentine’s Day back in 2001. Starring Johnny Depp, and set in a remote village in France in 1959, this is the story of a single, nomadic mother who moves to the conservative village Lansquenet-sous-Tannes to open a chocolaterie. Then a handsome Irish Gypsy (Depp) arrives in town and together they show the town how to love, laugh and truly live.

Prior to the show commencing there was a can-can performance by some local dancers and for a further touch of French flair, some food stalls selling crepes, waffles, macarons and hot chocolate.

What a lovely way to finish a fantastic Valentine’s day with my love.

Three very special events, each tantalising my passion for all things French, but best of all was that all three events were free.

Our Valentine’s Day may have been shared with some 400,000 people, but it was the most amazing Valentine’s Day of my life (so far).

Latest figures today revealed the Giants in Perth was attended by over 1.73 million people and tourism bosses say Perth should be pushing for more public arts events which bought a giant economic boost to Perth.

The highlight of Perth International Arts Festival spanned three unforgettable days, commemorated the centenary of Anzac, engaged over 500 artists, engineers, and volunteers, attracting 1.4 million people, and stole the hearts of an entire city.

Did you see the Giants in Perth? Have they been to a city near you?

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