The 2009 Tintin Festival 2009 will be held in Namur

Benoît LUTGEN, the Minister of Tourism for Wallonia, the town of Namur and the Studios Hergé will collaborate in the organisation of the third Tintin Festival, which will take place from Friday 8th May to Sunday 10th May 2009. Slowly but surely, the Tintin Festival, is establishing itself as an international event, held every two years. In 2005, the first Tintin Festival was held in Brussels, Lausanne followed in 2007, and next year’s hosts will be Namur, who may be succeeded by a town outside Europe. The potential host cities are starting to submit their bids, all suggestions are welcome. It will be a convivial festival which has something for everyone, families, adults, children, and the very knowledgable Tintinophile Associations. Each Tintin Festival allows us to discover or rediscover the town and its surroundings. This time the third Tintin Festival in Namur, puts the spotlight on Wallonia and its Capital.

The main events

The unveiling of a commemorative bronze plaque featuring an effigy of Tintin. The launching of the book of The Castafiore Emerald in the local dialect. An exhibition and a rally featuring cars drawn by Hergé. An exhibition about the unknown aspects of the work of the Studios Hergé, such as the restoration of Hergé’s original work – the unique opportunity discover, amongst other rarities, the original artwork from Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. A gastronomic journey in Namur, with the theme: Tintin and international cuisine, (… and from the Moon!). A track event, a soap box course, a Tintin shop, an international convention for the Tintinophile Associations, a marathon screening of the Tintin films and the animated cartoons, a flea market, a reading of The Castafiore Emerald in in the local dialect, a recital of The Suite Tintin, performed by the composer the Swedish cellist, Mats Lidstrom, and a fancy dress ball, will ensure an unforgetable weekend for the thousands of visitors who will attend. The first Tintin Festival in Brussels attracted more than 20,000 visitors per day.Children will joined at the festival, by our four legged friends, for whom there will be two contests, a Snowy look-a-like competition, and a contest to find the smartest dog. The highlight of the Tintin Festival in Namur will be the unveiling of Professor Calculus’ rocket.

The second Tintin rally – an event reserved for vehicles which appear in Hergé’s drawings – will get underway on 10 May 2009, as part of the Tintin Festival in Namur. The success of the first Tintin rally left participants eagerly awaiting the return of this colourful event. The show kicks off at 8.30 a.m. in front of the Grognon (the historical centre of Namur and home to the Walloon Parliament) and the tour will be completed, following a drive of over 200 km, at the Queen Fabiola amusement park at the top of the Namur Citadel, at about 4.30 p.m. There are going to be plenty of people using forms of transport which Tintin himself encountered on his madcap adventures, and besides driving around in these dream machines many of those involved will be die-hard Tintin fans. They won’t hesitate to decorate their modes of transport or dress up in a suitable outfit, if it means a shot at one of the many prizes that a jury will award to the best imitations of the world of Hergé. A spectacular occasion not to be missed…

Following previous appearances in Brussels (2005, 2006) and Barcelona (2007), the exhibition is going on show for the fourth time as part of the 2009 Tintin Festival in Namur, the capital of Wallonia. Ten vehicles, among the most well-known of those found in the world of Hergé, will be exhibited at the Place d’Armes under a tent, each complemented by a two-by-three metre comic strip frame. We estimate that around two million people to date have admired these wonderful reproductions.