We made the papers … in Germany!

Sonya

We’ve made the papers in Germany! Well, not exactly the headlines but the whole Lenton/Moorhead family were included in a double-page, centre-fold spread in a local newspaper. That’s a first! Thank you Celine McKillian from Imagine Luton for the sending the pics.

Last week Mr. Wilson’s had an inspiring, full family outing to Tête à Tête , Rastatt’s biannual International Street Theatre Festival.

Wow, this is how all festivals should be! Amazing weather, terrific hospitality, a jammed packed programme of shows of all scales and disciplines and let’s not forget to mention – an artists bar to dream of. The whole Tête à Tête team, headed up by Kathrin Bahr & Julia von Wild, were incredibly helpful and attentive which made delivering the shows a total please and so straight forward.

If that wasn’t enough, the organisers and artists were so lovely and friendly to our kids, who travelled with us for the first time to an international festival. They are 8 and 5 years old but they grew so much in confidence over the weekend, just watching acrobats and clowns and musicians enthrall thousands of people, they were blown away and by the end of our visit they were escorting themselves to the front row at shows and charmed more free merch out of artists than you could imagine. Their absolute favourite was Murmyo, the Chilean clown. His show, Fisura, was a highly skilled, traditional piece of street clown, and it was just so great to see families really laughing out loud and getting into it.

Sonya was also able to attend the professionals meeting, catch up with old UK outdoor arts comrades and learn a bit more about the emerging street sector in Germany.

And finally, some valuable learning points for future international touring drawn from our team’s Tête à Tête experience :

You can never have too many road snacks, you never know who might join you as a travelling companion along the way.
Check all children’s bags before passing through airport security in case they have packed a full water pistol. (because that shows up in an X-ray machine as both liquids and a gun shaped object…)
Do not pack your passport into your hold luggage, especially if your hold luggage is stowed in a car that is travelling home via two other European countries, whilst you and the rest of your colleagues are due to fly.
If you have a poor sense of direction and happen to sleep in the nude, turn the light on before trying to visit an ensuite bathroom. Otherwise you might find yourself locked out of your hotel room, in an empty corridor in the small hours of the morning with nothing to draw upon but your winning smile.
If you are not an acrobat do not try to spontaneously audition as an acrobat for non-english speaking circus company. It’s very disorientating for all involved.