In 2012, after the last time Royal de Luxe were in town, I wrote the
following words on my Flickr stream:
“In these busy times it is too easy to
embrace an event like this and forget just how much hard work and planning went
into it – especially when it runs as smoothly as the Sea Odyssey undoubtedly
did.
So I thought it would be nice to say
‘Thank You’. To the wonderful, creative imaginations at work at Royal de Luxe –
a huge ‘Merci’ to you and your team.
To the musicians – you made a
brilliant weekend even better. To everybody who worked on cranes, trucks,
security, crowd management – those people on the fringe of it all, sending
e-mails or picking up the phone – well done to every last one of you.
And to the City Council and
their team who made this happen – ‘Thank You’ for your belief in Liverpool. You
have successfully planned and executed a world class cultural event in our
city. Again. I haven’t heard a single negative comment about this event. Your
gift of countless joyful memories to so many people is beyond price and I, for
one, will never forget the days when Giants really did walk amongst us.”
Little did I know that, just two years later, the whole show would be back
in town. Not only that, but that it would be bigger and even better. Jean-Luc
Courcoult and his team raised the bar to an impossible level but the whole
thing ran at least as smoothly as it did in 2012. Bouquets are due to EVERYBODY
who made that happen. That includes the huge team of people who planned and
executed this show down to the most minute detail.
If the national media choose to pay these events scant attention, while
giving maximum exposure when somebody breaks wind in London, that is their
loss. But Liverpool is beyond Critical Mass with these events. We have acquired
a pre-eminent body of expertise in their planning and a growing reputation as a
centre of excellence for staging awe-inspiring cultural happenings.
Glastonbury was given wall to wall coverage by the BBC over three days and
attracted 120,000 spectators. The Giant Spectacular attracted over a million
people and warranted 45 seconds on the BBC national news. The evocation of the
events of the summer of 1914 was perfectly pitched and due respect was paid to
the brave and their many sacrifices. This was a key event in the official 14-18
NOW commemoration programme. Virtually ignoring it was another shameful stain
on the reputation of our hopelessly London-centric media.
In the meantime, these characters and creations – and the metaphors that
they represent – evoked deep and significant emotional stirrings in most who
encountered them. All Good Art should reach deep down inside you and touch your
soul. Royal de Luxe achieved that with consummate ease and left hundreds of
thousands of people with big happy smiles on their faces and more memories that
will last a lifetime. What a wonderful gift. ‘Thank You’ .. or ‘Merci’ .. doesn’t
begin to do it justice.Enjoy the images.
