Cirque de Soleil founder Guy Laliberte is using outer space to draw global attention to water conservation.
The showman, who is Canada’s first ever space tourist, is aboard Russia’s Soyuz TMA-16 rocket which blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on September 30.
Breaking with the tradition of the previous six space tourists, Laliberte is not conducting scientific experiments on the 12-day mission.
Instead, he has vowed to raise global awareness about water conservation through his charity, the ONE DROP Foundation.
Laliberte and his Soyuz crewmates were to dock with the International Space Station on October 2. There he will meet with Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk – a former student at the University of Calgary – who is on the station for six months.
His journey reportedly cost him $35 million. For that he gets to host a world first – a live entertainment show on October 9 from the 350-kilometre high space lab.
The former fire-eater and stiltwalker will orchestrate the show, called Moving Stars and Earth for Water, from the space station. The show will blend ‘poetic readings” by celebrities in 14 cities around the world and top notch stage entertainment.
The show is to be televised live by RDI, the CBC’s French-language all-news TV channel, as well as on the Internet at onedrop.org, the website of Laliberte’s charitable group.
Laliberta launched the ONE DROP foundation in October, 2007. Its aim is to fight poverty in the world by giving everyone access to water.
The foundation makes use of the circus arts, folklore, popular theatre, music, dance, and the visual arts to promote education, community involvement and public awareness of water issues. Technical projects in developing countries will improve access to water, ensure food security and promote gender equality. The operating costs of ONE DROP will be covered by a $100,000 million contribution over 25 years from Laliberte.
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