Artpark & KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival Present the U.S. Premiere of PLASTICIENS VOLANTS

Artpark and the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival will bring France's Plasticiens Volants to New York State this September for its U.S. premiere.

Plasticiens Volants (pronunciation here) has been captivating audiences all over the world on a grand scale for forty years with its unique form of street theatre. Using giant inflatables - which the company creates and flies via actors on the ground - it combines these huge, floating creatures with theater, projected images, music and pyrotechnics to tell spectacular, dreamlike stories. The group is renowned for creating high-profile events in the skies, squares and streets of five continents, including its most recent production for the Olympic Games in Rio (2016).

"For more than four decades, Artpark has been a unique destination for new and experimental statements of art and performance in a stunning setting of the Niagara Gorge. I reached out to Plasticiens Volants, knowing that their work would fit here like nowhere else," says Artpark Executive Director Sonia Kozlova Clark. "To my surprise, they informed me that the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival was also talking to them about performing in September, and offered to introduce us. Thus began our partnership in bringing this incredible group to the U.S. for the first time."

"In the six years since we began, the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival has grown to be one of the most attended fringe festivals in the U.S. One reason is our annual outdoor spectacle performances, which are totally unique - no other fringe festival in the world has such a commitment to present public performances by cutting-edge, internationally renowned groups of artists each year," explains Fringe Producer Erica Fee. "Plasticiens Volants certainly fills that bill, and the fact that this is the group's U.S. debut makes it even more special."

Fee and Clark worked in collaboration to coordinate the mini-tour. This project was supported by a grant from Empire State Development's I LOVE NEW YORK program, under Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's Market NY initiative.

Gavin Landry, Executive Director of Tourism for Empire State Development, says: "The Rochester Fringe Festival is one of Upstate New York's most unique events and Artpark is one of Western New York's most unique venues, making this a very fitting partnership that supports tourism and the arts while providing a boost to local businesses. We are proud to welcome Plasticiens Volants to the United States and encourage New Yorkers and visitors alike to experience these performances this September."

At both venues, Plasticiens Volants will present an hour-long show entitled BIG BANG, a creation story described by the company as a "visual poem around very human questions: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? To infuse everything that is said on the subject raises a certainty: We are not sure of anything!" View BIG BANG video.

Artpark will present BIG BANG as part of its season finale on Saturday, September 2, and the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival will host two performances of the show during its annual Friday and Saturday on the Fringe on September 15 and 16.

"We're thrilled to expand our audiences' experience with European street theatre - an art form less familiar in the U.S.," add Fee and Clark. "It's really a bit of a coup!"

In addition to support from Empire State Development and the National Endowment for the Arts, Plasticiens Volants' BIG BANG U.S. premiere performances are made possible in part by French sponsors Tarn Conseil General, Region Midi-Pyrénées, Graulhet, and Spedidam.

Artpark's performance is also supported by presenting sponsor M&T Bank, and the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission. KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival's performances are also supported by title sponsor KeyBank; New York State Council on the Arts; University of Rochester; Rochester Area Community Foundation; Elaine P. & Richard U. Wilson Foundation; RIT; Ames Amzalak Memorial Trust; National Endowment for the Arts; Gouvernet Arts Fund at the Rochester Area Community Foundation; City of Rochester; Monroe County; Bond, Schoeneck & King LLP; Boylan Code LLP; Mengel, Metzger, Barr & Co. LLP; Wegmans; Nocon & Associates; Ronald Fielding; SUNY Geneseo; The Pike Company; Mary S. Mulligan Trust; the Max & Marian Farash Charitable Foundation; 13-WHAM; CITY Newspaper; Democrat & Chronicle Media Group; East Avenue Inn & Suites; Broccolo Tree & Lawncare; McCarthy Tents & Events; Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation; The Rubens Family Foundation; The Wilson Foundation; the College at Brockport; Nazareth College; St. John Fisher College; Visit Rochester; Genesee Beer; City Blue; WXXI; Yelp!; and KidsOutandAbout.com.

As one of North America's most innovative summer art festivals, Artpark offers a full spectrum of engaging entertainment, from Broadway musicals to Buffalo Philharmonic concerts to rock and pop performers. Created especially with families in mind, it also offers art, theatre and music camps for youth and a variety of weekend family programs, as well as hiking trails, nature sites, fishing docks and picnic areas. Since its inception in 1974, it has served as an active prototype for true public art.

For more information, please visit artpark.net and rochesterfringe.com.

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