Europe 2006 | George Filev

European tour - the final chapter.

08 Aug 2006 02:24 Filed in: Europe 2006
Trafalgar Square was a huge success. The sky's eventually cleared and we got to perform both shows to a large crowd. It was pretty amazing performing under Nelson's Column.


I did get to do a little site seeing and checked out the National Gallery and a human Body exhibition.

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They presented human remains in a really creative way. Replacing the water molecules with Silicon molecules preserved the body parts. Different poses and ways of displaying the body parts showed how our bodies work literally in the flesh.

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Ok now that I have grossed you all out lets talk about something more pleasant. We now travel to Marcinelle in Belgium to perform at Bois Du Cazier, for the 50th anniversary of the worst mine catastrophe in Belgium's History.

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Ok let me fill you in on a little history on this event.

After the 2nd world war, the soldiers went home to find that there was not much work so they had to look elsewhere to make a crust. Many Italian's went to Belgium as there were ads saying free travel, free housing and good wages paid for work.

Many men came to Belgium to find that the housing was in ex POW camps, the work was mining coal at some levels up to 1000m's below the ground and as the bosses were only interested in profit and coal, men were expendable so penalties were placed on workers if they did not achieve the targets set to them by the bosses.

You were paid by the meter in depth you dug and some workers would only be left with one fifth of their wage after paying back the bosses for penalties imposed on them.

Conditions were terrible underground, cramped, hot, noisy, long hours, hard labour and silicosis was common among the miners. Accidents occurred often and up to 1000 miners died each year.

On the morning of 8th August 1956 a mining cart was pushed into an elevator shaft by a miner who thought the lift was ready. It caused the elevator to crash down the shaft, severing an oil line and electrical conduit and causing a fire in one of the mine shafts.

The fire quickly spread trapping the miner's underground. The second shaft was not operational and there wasn't any exit strategy planned. The whole town was effected and the army was called in to keep people away from the site. The king arrived to assess the situation.

What eventuated was that there were only 13 survivors, 262 men died that day (95 Belgians, the rest Italians). This event changed mining practices all over the world and safety improvements brought annual deaths down to 10. Only the mine director was charged for the event. Neither the mine owners or the government were scrutinised for the disaster.

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The mine was operational 6 months after the catastrophe in April 1957. Currently the site is a Memoriam historical site.

Our company was hired to perform in the spectacular to mark the 50 years from the disaster and there was a mine survivor, who attended the event, along with 10,000 people.

It was a massive production with a tight wire walker, Aerialists, dancers, singers and mega lighting and fireworks effects all playing out the story and paying homage to the miners that died.

We had top dress up as miners and re-enact different stages of their lives. It was incredibly emotional and really well done. I felt it left the audience with a sense of real reverence for the miners. It was a really nice project to be a part of and our hearts were lifted when we were done. This is me being one of the miners in rehearsal.

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Next stop Italy. Unfortunately it rained a lot over the next couple of days. We had to cancel the shows in Potenza and Lignano Sabbiadoro and then we had Bardonechia cancel on us so we went to Cinque Terra for a holiday as we had time to spare.

We managed to rent a great apartment overlooking the ocean and the gods must have been smiling on us because we had two sunny days before the rain came back.

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Here is the view from our balcony.

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Last stop was in France in a town called Ambers. The council have been trying to get us to perform for the past 3 years. We finally were in the position to do the festival this year and we arrive in torrential downpour's that look like they are not going to stop.

Luck is on their side and we were able to perform both days and they were very happy. In a nice bit of serendipity the council arranged for all the volunteers to give us a heart felt send off complete with champagne and plenty of applause. They were extremely generous and grateful and it was a beautiful way to end the tour.

Back on the planes again and heading home. Just to finish off here are some images of some shows we did on the tour.


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Well that's it folks. I am home for 2 weeks then off to Mexico, followed by a stint in Hong Kong before Doha, Qatar for another 8 weeks. Been a busy year but an eventful one and most enjoyable.

All the best,

George

xxxooo

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