Bristol’s year as European Green Capital was launched in spectacular fashion last night as one of the world’s leading tightrope walkers rode a bike along a 120-metre long wire 100 feet above the ground, with his wife suspended below.
It took Jade Kindar-Martin around 15 minutes to cycle the length of the wire between the A Bond warehouse and the B Bond warehouse, which now houses the Create Centre, in the Hotwells area of the city.
His wife, Hollywood stuntwoman Karine Mauffrey, performed an aerial trapeze routine, wearing a specially designed dress that lit up through the use of LED technology, as shown in the video below of the dress rehearsal.
The event, put together by Bristol-based Cirque Bijou, was accompanied by light projections onto the buildings as well as a musical score specially composed by Dom Coyote.
Called Bridging The Gap, the performance aimed to “symbolise the difference between our green intentions and our actions – and the bridge that we all need to cross to start living more sustainably,” according to the Bristol 2015 website.
The website Bristol 24/7, which posted the video of the dress rehearsal to YouTube, says that thousands of people watched yesterday evening’s performance.
Kindar-Martin and Mauffrey introduce themselves in this video released ahead of last night’s event.
After last night’s performance, which took place without a safety net, Mauffrey told the Bristol Post: “I was a little bit nervous beforehand, just that something technical would go wrong with the winch getting me up the building or my dress.
“We had one or two problems in rehearsal which were making me a bit nervous. But I was mostly excited, and it never once crossed my mind anything would go wrong or we would fall.
“I trust my husband 100 per cent. He has been doing this for a long time. We got married on a high wire ten years ago - so this felt almost like a ten-year anniversary celebration.
“Back then I was wearing a white dress just like the one I have on now, so we were talking about that after we finished the stunt,” she added.
Needs a plaque: "If you don't see the point: raise your saddle."
Must have been ages ago? Fences have stopped using Ebay, and if it is a very expensive, rare and customised bike, like mine was, those get shipped...
So let me get this straight. Ignore the driver and report using, presumably, OpSnap and the Met do nothing. Post it on social media, which they...
Well now I've heard the excuses and had time to digest them I'm not impressed to say the least....
You could always try riding flats and a pair of normal trainers. Works for lots of people who aren't wannabe pro racers......
Definitely legal and a number of teams have used them, I remember an interview with IPT's chief technician a couple of years back where he revealed...
I cycled up Marsh Lane yesterday, and went through the bus gate behind the new number 16 bus (temple meads to kingswood via barton hill). So that...
If I had to pick an annual race (bar Covid) I'd go for Paris-Roubaix....
I share that hope too. I think it's slightly more complicated as the lower courts ordered that he had to be returned and now the Supreme Court have...
Although since September:...