When Winter holiday season is approaching, new sets of festivals and events are spreading across the city of Amsterdam, and you get a real sense that Christmas (or Sinterklaas) is coming with the big yearly event of Turn on the Lights!
Every year, around November 20th, De Bijenkorf, the main department store in The Netherlands, is sponsoring a big open air light show in the main square of Dam, to celebrate the beginning of festive season and the turning on of its LED illuminated façade.
But don’t expect a disneyesque parade of fluffy and cheerful balloons like the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. Dutch people are not so naif, so why not transforming a commercial event in something more edgy?
Last year, in 2013, De Bijenkorf commissioned the French street theater company Plasticiens Volants, transforming the Dam Square in a One Thousand and One Nights tale, with giant (and maybe a little disturbing) inflatable creatures flying over people’s heads.
This year, on November 20th, it’s time for LA FURA DELS BAUS to warm up the show with a majestic and poetic vision of human genesis (or at least that’s what I understood, ’cause their shows tend to be a little cryptics). A giant mechanic human being walking through the square and dozens of acrobats will make a hell of a show!
If that is a classic show for families and kids, I’ll pay all my respect to Dutch people!
Just so you know, La Fura Dels Baus is known for shows like XXX, Boris Godunov and Le Grand Macabre.
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