Labastide-Saint-Pierre. They left room for shows and it was famous.

This weekend, the municipality of Labastide-Saint-Pierre put the population in a box to share moments of communion and simplicity at the beautiful start of summer. After the great successes repeated in the first years, the third edition of the Places o’spectacles operation held the spotlight despite the vagaries of a still capricious weather: “We knew that the forecasts were threatening, so we had to adapt by keeping the program sheltered, and from this point of view, it was rather successful”, the organizers explained to us. From the first staging in the rural center, the light trestles shone like weapons and finally big suns shone in the eyes of the children who came in large numbers, sometimes in rhinestones from time to time. We discovered Suzie and many artistic talents who came to mingle on colorful canvases, and quickly the public was won over. The formula, although far from the haggard cymbal players who clash their fists and make the din thunder, consists of wandering around the village to share the charm of three shows in rudimentary proximity.

Juggling and derision

Then, under the shelter of a covered courtyard in the elementary school yard, we discovered the Helmut Von Karglass company, a provocative Austrian artist who didn’t mince his words: “But gold in your hands, that was really great,” the spectators analyzed. Quick to make fun of both the French and his hosts, he mastered humor and derision as much as his juggling balls and knives, which made the audience, and especially the guinea pig, break out in a cold sweat. Finally, we had to retreat to the rural center to close this new vintage with the dangerous liaisons of Jacqueline and Marcel, proposed by the l’Art osé company. In front of concentrated gazes, they chose the street as a place of existence, as a terrain of all possibilities. In Labastide, under the eyes of the municipal team who were not the last to laugh, there was a place in the public space that subtly responded to the desire to break down walls: “This operation is very original, it allows us to bring people together with the desire to unite them, and that is important.” By using intelligence and circus art, we hit the nail on the head, wandering the streets with Cirkomcha on tall stilts. A big hat tip to the organizing committee for the success of this superb event and the necessary adaptation.