Tonight Ideas Take Flight

TONIGHT IDEAS TAKE FLIGHT followed the success of I Dreamt I Could Fly (1994) with Handspan and Circus Oz collaborating again to create a large scale entry for the Moomba Festival’s River Pageant in 1995.

Staged on a river barge the production was a floating spectacle that participated in a flotilla pageant along the Yarra River on the final night of Festival - an animated tableau performed by circus and puppetry artists..

The parade theme was 'carnival' and in its spirit, a 6-metre carnivale mask headed the barge and was primed to come to life by scattering winged fantasy objects into the night air to culminate in an explosion of light, smoke and fire.

On the night however, there was a major mishap and the piece was dreadfully compromised by one of those technical glitches that is the nightmare of anyone involved in one-off performance: the barge generator failed for the first half of the river parade, resulting in it drifting along in utter darkness. It was repaired, and the performance was wonderfully visible for the second half of its journey – missing however, the crowds gathered in the prime city centre viewing locations.

No photographs of TONIGHT IDEAS TAKE FLIGHT have been found to date