Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
With all the excitement happening on the track over the Formula 1 weekend, not to mention my own personal agenda to greet every driver and get a picture in the paddock complex, it would have been easy to overlook the vending area as merely the gateway between the car park and the action.
However, I found myself with a couple of hours free on Saturday and decided to check the area out to see what I could find. After all, I’ve spent more hours than I’d care to admit carefully assembling the F1 Listings pages for the benefit of our readers in recent weeks, so it would be remiss of me not to check out these performers I’ve been plugging for so long!
The most striking of these was the SIRO-A group from Japan who put on a scintillating show. They fused miming with extensive visual effects and an electro soundtrack to create something very … Japanese. Quirky to some, plain weird to others, but I was entranced by the dancing, puppetry and interaction of the group even if I didn’t quite understand what was going on.
Later on, I caught the last few minutes of Ticket to Bollywood, a Mumbai production which brought the extravagant music/dance hybrid and fancy costumes from the famous movie industry. I swear I spied Deputy Editor Gopal at the front clapping along too, desperately trying to raise his spirits after endless ribbing in the office after England got further than India in the T20 World Cup.
The usual array of street acts was out in full force. Particularly of note was Aramis Gehberger, more popularly known as Dr Bubbles, who has made a living out of being ‘the world’s pre-eminent bubble artist’. Aside from that being the greatest foreword to a CV ever written, his skills were clear to see as he created bubbles of all shapes and sizes that floated endlessly across from one end of the vending area to the other as children chased them trying to pop them.
Stilt walkers, monkey bongo drummers and giant tree puppets were among the weird and wonderful attractions that had swathes of families posing for pictures too. Joey Albert, a ‘jack of all trades’ act thanks to his mixing of acrobatics, juggling and comedy proved to be the most popular of the lot judging by the huge crowds he magnetised, even though he did drop his juggling balls a couple of times and nervously downplayed it as ‘intentional’!
Nothing quite brings the carnival atmosphere like a professional trapeze group, and the giant wheel near the paddock entrance was actually home to a series of bars and ropes for the high-flying gymnasts to somersault between. The announcer who declared they were ‘risking their lives for your entertainment’ obviously missed the giant safety net just five metres below them, though.
Inevitably, as a lifelong gamer, I found my true calling in the Gamezone where I once again ruthlessly destroyed excited kids on the F1 video game simulators. This might be one of the occasions where being ultra-competitive is a negative, but I nonetheless gained smug satisfaction from winning a race, getting out of my chair and doing an Eric Cantona-esque chest-out celebration while the second-placed driver was still rounding the final corner.
However, the less said about my tyre-change pit stop attempt, the better. I somehow managed to get an even worse time than last year when I dropped the wheel nut, so I think I can firmly put to bed any hope of being in the pit lane when I’m older.
All in all, this was one of the best years I can remember in terms of sheer range of entertainment and activities available. There really was something for everyone and at no time was there nothing going on. I’m already excited for what the events team can bring next year to top it!
