Friday 4 July 2008

Ready, set, go!

Yesterday 3rd of July 00:00 marked the legal opening of street advertising for the upcoming Avignon Theatre Festival which starts on July 6th (In) and July 10th (Off) - I'll explain the difference between In and Off in a later post. Starting four hours early, many bill posters started roaming the old city as early as 8 p.m. and throughout the night in order to secure as much space as possible in the best locations. With over 700 shows and theatre plays, advertising space is at a premium and being there first helps! The photo above give an idea of the frantic activity that continued all day - and it's only the beginning. Notice the mural on the right representing a theatre play - the characters seem to be aware of what's going on outside their window!
Affiches Festival d'Avignon 2008 - Avignon en photos - Affiches du Festival d'Avignon 2008
Hier à 00:00 marquait le début de l'autorisation municipale d'affichage pour les spectacles du Festival d'Avignon qui commence le 6 juillet pour le In et le 10 juillet pour le Off (je vous expliquerai plus tard la différence entre le In et le Off). Dès 20 h le soir précédent, l'installation d'affiches commençait, se prolongeant tard dans la nuit et reprenant de plus belle au matin. Le but est de s'approprier le plus tôt possible la plus grande quantité d'espace visuel dans les meilleurs emplacements. Avec environ 700 spectacles annoncés, on imagine l'intensité de la concurrence pour la visibilité ! L'image ci-dessus donne une idée de l'activité frénétique qui régnait hier - et ce n'est qu'un début. Remarquez à droite la peinture murale représentant une pièce de théatre, on dirait que les comédiens s'inquiètent de l'activité qui règne au dehors !
However the poster that made my day yesterday is the one above announcing a free concert on Place Pie (Pie square) in celebration of Ingrid Betancourt's return to freedom. Ingrid, who was held hostage for over six years in the Colombian jungle by the FARC leftist militia, was freed yesterday thanks to an extraordinary rescue mission led by the Colombian army. Being half French, half Colombian, Ingrid is a national hero here and the news of her release brought extraordinary emotion. Read more about it here.

Mais l'affiche qui m'a donné le plus de joie hier est celle-ci, annonçant un grand concert gratuit sur la place Pie pour célébrer la libération d'Ingrid Betancourt. Après plus de six ans de captivité, enfin ! C'est une magnifique nouvelle !
Avignon en photos - libération d'Ingrid Betancourt - 2 juillet 2008

15 comments:

Cergie said...

La crête, la rupture.
L'avant, l'après.
La date butoir. A la fois celle de la libération d'un otage, et celle plus légère du début de l'autorisation d'afficher.
Avant-après, deux mondes...

En tout cas, je t'envie, j'adorais lorsque j'étais étudiante le festival de théâtre universitaire de Nancy créé par J Lang. Nous courrions alors les salles car nous avions un directeur très compréhensif.

Pat said...

Bonjour! Je suis de retour des vacances et j'essaie de visiter autant de "mes" blogs que je peux.

J'aime vos photos, et suis bien contente qu'Ingrid ait ete enfin liberee...

Mais la Place Pie...ne serait-elle pas "Magpie Square" en anglais, "pie" signifiant 'loiseau et non la tarte?

Very soon, perhaps by the end of next week, I will be posting some photos of our Greek vacation, during which we were accompanied by a small Serbian traveler (mystery man...) who helped us see Greece through his eyes... Stay tuned...drop in.

PeterParis said...

After a week’s absence from the blogging world, I made the tour of your recent posts, with a lot of amazing macros !

I made a few posts about Ingrid before she was at last free! I should perhaps have done one also now, but you took care!

I imagine you will take profit of the festival (although suffering from the over-population), maybe especially the “off”?

Dina said...

Yes, so good that the hostages were rescued. Do you think Israel had a hand in it? Article at
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3563850,00.html

Enjoy your festival.

Olivier said...

Pour Ingrid Betancourt (qui est cityoenne d'honneur de la ville d'Evry) une fete est prevue Lundi à Evry.
Tu vas pouvoir, nous donner plein de superbes photos pendant le festival d'Avignon, ton APN va chauffer.

Sally said...

That was wondeful news, which we heard high up the news bulletins here. I am looking forward to seeing some of the activity during the theatre festival from "our" quarter of Avignon!

Anonymous said...

Le Off en 2007 : 706 compagnies, 856 spectacles, 4600 artistes.
Pour 2008 on avance plus de 750 compagnies et l'approche du millier de spectacles...

Quand à Ingrid, je ne sais rien.

Nathalie H.D. said...

Merci Michel ! Avec mes chiffres de 2006 j'étais loin en dessous de la vérité !

Sally, I'll make sure YOUR corner of town is covered.

Bibi, lovely to have you back. It's Pie square because it's Pie as the Pope name and not as the magpie.

For those of you who visited earlier, yes I have changed the photo, I found this one more striking. The lady on the left is standing on a rubbish bin. You do your best when you don't have a ladder.

Pour ceux d'entre vous qui sont déjà passés ce matin, oui j'ai changé la photo. Celle-ci m'a semblé plus frappante. La dame à gauche est montée sur une poubelle. Quand on n'a pas d'échelle on fait comme on peut.

claude said...

Autant je ne savais pas qu'il y avait un festival du Cinéma à Avignon, que je connais le Festival tout court. Si 700 spectacles annoncent 700 affiches, ben dis donc !
Tu as raison celle d'Ingrid Bétancourt est celle qui fait le plus plaisir à voir. On est passé de photos tristes à des photos joyeuses, et c'est tant mieux.
Bon Festival Nathalie !

Bergson said...

tout le monde se réjouit de cette libération.

Bon festival, les rues vont ^tre bondées, pour amener tes bouteilles de coka chez toi ça va devenir difficile ;-)

Chuckeroon said...

That's good news, isn't it. We all looked forward to that.

Bill said...

You know what is funny, is that the first thing I noticed was that I have a ladder made by the same company (you can tell by the base), and I hate that ladder with a passion :)

The characters in the window are great!

Squirrel said...

everyone here was happy about Ingrid too. Nice photo.

Chuck Pefley said...

The complexity of activity in this photo is nice to see. Looks like they are working as quickly as possible. Interesting restrictions on outdoor advertising and it would be quite refreshing to see some of that imposed restraint in the US. God knows we can't restrain ourselves when it comes to capitalistic endeavors.

Jilly said...

I was in America when the news of Ingrid Betancourt came through. Such amazingly good and welcome news.

What a great photo of the advertising going up. So much in this photograph - those lines of posters running down the centre and, as you say, the look of the characters on the right - so makes the photo. How precarious tho, the guy up top looks.

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