Nox, Flocks, Hold Onto Your Socks

This weekend Nouméa held an outdoor arts festival called "Nox 'tambules." Neither Tate or I can figure out exactly what this name means, but we think it's something like "Night of walking around looking at crazy stuff."

In a large park in the neighborhood of Receiving (so named because it was a receiving station in World War II) they set up several tents and stages. It was actually a pretty great event. We saw jugglers:

Sand sculptures:

A strange Japanese mime duo (shown here encouraging a French woman to... do the running man, I guess?):

A truly excellent variety show that combined classic French cabaret acts, slapstick comedy, shadow puppets, traditional Kanak dances, and MIA's 'Bamboo Banga.' We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the "Chapito" but you can imagine it taking place here:

And best of all, "Les Piafs" which are a roving band of bird-puppets. It was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. I'll let the video speak for itself.

It should be noted that these puppets were imported from metropolitan France especially for this festival. New Caledonia doesn't generally produce such awesome puppets on its own. In fact, it should be also noted that there were hardly any Kanak people at this festival at all. Like many of the public events supported by the city, Nox 'tambules was designed to appeal to only to métros.

Hopefully in the future this will change. Everyone should get to enjoy bird puppets.