2014 WEG Normandy: The programme of festivities is unveiled

The Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2014 in Normandy will constitute the most significant sporting competition in France over the next 12 months. In addition to this, the Normandie 2014 edition is stretching far beyond a purely sporting context. Indeed it is billed as the great celebration of the horse through a highlighting and embellishing of its history, its culture and its influence, prior to and during the World Equestrian Games, thanks to a vast programme of entertainment. Its main theme: a journey through time, the continents and the imagination.

Jean-Louis Gouraud, a writer and specialist on the equestrian world, awarded the Renaudot paperback prize in 2013, has been asked by the event’s organisers to recount the history of the horse and its relationship with Man since the beginning of humanity in 80 short stories.

Since July these stories have been appearing in the style of a serial within the columns of the French daily newspaper Ouest-France at the rate of one ‘episode’ a week, every Saturday. Since the end of November, these tales have also begun a ‘voyage’ across Normandy, printed out on billboards exhibited month after month in ten of the region’s special sites. The first of these ten billboards was installed on Saturday 30 November at Place Saint-Sauveur in Caen. The next, in December, will be the follow-up to this in the town of Deauville. The exhibition** is financed by the Sustainable Development and Innovation fund*.

On Saturday 23 August 2014 from 8.30pm, the opening ceremony will introduce this “Around the World in 80 horses” project in its own unique way, in front of 20,000 spectators in d’Ornano stadium in Caen. Following on from the procession of delegations, no fewer than 300 artists, of which around a hundred will be riders, will succeed one another throughout three acts: Wandering the World, Land of Encounters and Adventures at a Gallop. The show has been entrusted to the French group Skertzo*, which will be offering some brand new genres of performance, which use monumental 3D screenings combining the performing arts and high technology. Its director, Hélène Richard, explains: “In three acts and around thirty scenes, we’re going to show that all bridleways lead to Caen. The traveller traverses the world on horseback to get to Normandy. On the return journey, at the end of the event, he or she is enriched by a great many values and encounters. The horse will be the main protagonist in the show.”

Tickets for the opening ceremony are now sale on the ticketing website.

Category 2 tickets are sold at €48 (€28 for the under 12s), whereas category 1tickets are available for €76 (€38 for the under 12s)