Spectacular stadium performance puts 8th Gay Games in Cologne on fire

Exclusively for the opening ceremony of the 8th Gay Games, the biggest sports and culture festival in the world with more than  10,000 participants, which will take place in Cologne on July 31st 2010, Petra Quednau and her team from Project PQ have created a spectacular new production with 24 fire artists. The stage for the show, which will be the highlight of the opening ceremony and which will feature the latest pyrotechnics, is the RheinEnergieStadion. The challenge is to perform for an area of almost 10,000 sqm and to enthuse the audience for the world premiere of the official Gay Games song “Facing a Miracle“, presented by Taylor Dayne. “A fire show of this dimension is something very special. For the performance in a sports stadium you of course need a completely different sense of space than for a normal stage show“, explains Petra Quednau, founder and owner of Project PQ, “For this challenge our experiences from other productions have been very helpful. This time we will present fire and emotion in an XXL format“.

The intention of the Gay Games, to show the several athletes with their individual strengths and disciplines and to turn this into a common experience, has strongly inspired Project PQ for its choreography. “All 24 artists who are taking part in the performance have their very own approach to the medium of fire. Each one of us is particularly adept with specific props and certain moves. We are bringing exactly these individual strengths into the choreography“, Isabella von Gatterburg and Heidi Schink, both also fire artists at Project PQ, illustrate the concept. “Synchronous sequences, in which we are all acting out the same movements with different props, are combined with individual choreographies where everyone can demonstrate what he or she is best at.  Together, this creates a highly emotional overall picture, which will impress the audience. “More positive energy for the athletes in the RheinEnergieStadion is not possible. Let the Games begin! Tickets at www.games-cologne.de