Alta town centre looks a bit like the buildings have been dropped in by air-lift. Around it the residential areas are hidden amongst trees or over small hills, leaving in view only box shaped shopping centres and car parks which give the impression of a kind of sci-fi wild west in the northern wastelands. In the main square between all these blocks of glass and concrete, Laila Kolostyak had built an ice garden. There were strangely shaped snow-penguins with glowing eyes, a dragon which children could climb inside, an igloo and a massive ornate stage made of snow and ice.
After night fell, local children and teenagers put on an abstract movement piece, the story of which was (and I have since read a suggestion that this interpretation is completely wrong, but trust me dear reader, this is how it was...) a tale of a young warrior from the orient who travelled around the northern areas of the globe, collecting elements of the northern lights in a magic cake tin and braving dangers, such as wolves and belly dancers. At the end the warrior opened the cake tin and released the aurora borealis, at which point the rest of the cast came back on stage for their bow, creating a complex tableau in the process, and at the same time people at the back of the crowd let go of a large number of coloured helium balloons with glow sticks hanging from them which floated up into the sky. I told myself not to worry about the plastic, we're in the middle of nowhere up here, it's a drop in the ocean.
The whole thing was a great example of what can be achieved when amateurs and professionals get together to produce something for the community. My personal highlights of the performance were a large bird puppet, the symbolism of which I couldn't fully grasp, but which looked great on the two occasions it circled the action, and the music which accompanied the final section of the performance. This was a kind of Sami joik (a form of traditional singing not too far from yodeling) with a seriously banging beat and bass line underneath it. I would love to know what this piece of music was, so if you know, please get in touch!
