The cultural programme

[worldfairs]

Text extracted from "Guia Expo'98"


The cultural programme is one of its strongest drawcards.
It is divided into two blocks: the shows that are repeated daily and the temporary ones. Olharapos, Peregrinação and Acqua Matrix are names to remember from any of the 132 days.

The entertainment has taken to the streets

Whatever date you choose to visit the Expo, you can't miss the Olharapos and The Natural Theatre Company's sketches all over the site, the Pilgrimage parade around the Utopia Pavilion, the Acqua Matrix show at Olivais Dock and the Midnight Tea at Sony Square. These are the five main courses of permanent entertainment that are reserved for visitors, designed to entertain everyone. To "mex" with big and small. Portuguese and foreigners.

True walking sculptures with various heads, eyes, wings and scales, the 60 Olharapos hide musicians, dancers, singers and jugglers inside, ready to talk and play with passers-by. Inspired by legendary figures with such strange names as murgons, lâ-mias, macaomes or átaras, they are suddenly born, appearing out of nowhere, anywhere in the venue. As early as 9am, they are the Expo's great hosts, welcoming those who enter the various gates. Throughout the day, it's up to them to "divert" people from one side of the site to the other, trying to break up queues and create new points of interest. And, after a -rendering of the guard- at 1pm (in front of the Utopia Pavilion) and an afternoon of entertainment that lasts until 6pm, around 8pm it's also the Olharapos who help visitors make the transition from ExpoDia to ExpoNoite, directing them to the riverside area where, close to midnight, the 17-minute Acqua Matrix show takes place. A task they repeat at around 3am, lest the more nocturnal forget that it's time to leave the venue.

Scheduled for sunset - about an hour before the pavilions close their doors - is the Pilgrimage, an open-air parade that lasts an hour and a half, features 112 actors and marks the end of the day and the beginning of the night. With artistic direction by João Brites (head of the theatre group 0 Bando), the ten pilgrimage machines and 22 peregrim mobiles (small individual machines) follow a route through the grounds that is intended as a tribute to the world's journey at the turn of the century. And it's an unforgettable spectacle, taking visitors all the way to the Olivais Docks.
The machines line up next to the South International Area, on Rua do Poio Sul. Only then do the peregrimobiles move to the Expo'98 roundabout, next to the Porta do Mar, where the actors begin to attract visitors. The first stop is at the foot of the Exhibition Pavilion, with the Pilgrims' Wave. Half an hour later there's the Paralisation, in front of the Utopia Pavilion, followed by the Embrace and the Chimeras (the actors fill large white bags with air and throw them into the Tagus). In Mar da Palha, an artificial rhinoceros begins to move. It goes from the Vasco da Gama Tower to the Doca (or vice versa, depending on the tide) and ends up caged in the middle of the river. It leaves to come back the next day...

Every day, except Monday, at around 1am, 12pm, 3pm and 5pm, their adores entertain visitors with different sketches in various parts of the site. This British street entertainment group - which has been dedicated to provoking audiences since 1969 - promises hilarious and interactive performances at Expo'98.

A nocturnal entertainment venue par excellence, this site also has its own daytime programme. There, visitors will be able to watch a series of shows and broadcasts of the World Cup football matches taking place in France

Imagined by Mário Carneiro, Paulo Feliciano and Alberto Lopes, the show has stage architecture by Marik Fisher (who has staged concerts by groups such as U2, Rolling Nones and Pink Floyd), a soundtrack by David Toop (who has worked with Brian Eno) and pyrotechnics by Christophe Bertonneau. The only character is a girl, who will be 110 metres from the audience inside a transparent "escape machine". On the central (floating) platform there is a giant egg that simulates life and serves as a screen for projecting images. Then three towers symbolising a civilisation rise up and form a barrier around the egg. Suddenly, the structures are destroyed by fire, in a metaphor for energy drain and pollution. The whole thing collapses, but the girl's machine escapes and makes its way to the illuminated Oceanarium, while there are explosions and flames in the middle of the Dock