TOM NODDY'S PERFORMANCES HAVE UNFORTUNATELY BEEN CANCELLED.
Caterpillar bubbles, volcano bubbles, spinning carousel bubbles and cube-shaped bubbles. The wild and wet world of these sublime pieces of floating art will blow into existence at the Experimentarium’s Bubble Festival this weekend.
The world-renowned ‘bubble guy’, Tom Noddy, is back for his eighth year to woo the hearts and minds of bubble lovers of all ages. Presenting six shows over two days, this bubbler aims to dispel the traditional notions of what your average bath-time bubble is capable of.
Noddy believes our associations between soap bubbles and childhood has kept us from absorbing the many lessons they hold. “We think we know it all. We think they’re like balloons and thin glass, that they’re fragile. But in fact there are very few things that break bubbles,” he contends. While the science behind bubbles is stupefying, it was the aesthetics of bubbles that catapulted Noddy into becoming a bubble guy.
“It was their beauty that held my attention … but my mind was clicking away as I watched the colours swirl on the surface of their ultra-thin fluid form and I couldn’t help but ask questions about it,” he remembers.
Not just content to admire their exquisiteness, Noddy set about asking physicists, mathematicians, biologists and even astronomers how bubbles fit into their field of study. His shows are therefore not just about blowing and bursting – a large component is the educational element. “Soap bubbles can teach us things that relate to the largest and smallest forms that we can perceive. It continues to surprise people that so much is wrapped up in a simple child’s toy,” he says.
One of Noddy’s favourite tricks is to demonstrate the resistance bubbles hold to sharp objects. “Bubbles are more concerned with wet and dry. If a needle is dry, the balloon will break but if the needle is wet it will simply slip inside the bubble,” reveals Noddy.
In addition to his mesmerising shows, the Experimentarium will transform itself into an ocean of soap bubbles with a host of activities throughout the complex. The Bubble Festival is one of the biggest festivals the Experimentarium holds each year. French bubble artist Sylvain Levétee will be on hand creating gigantic bubbles to woo the crowds, both big and small.
Levétee “is just as popular with the adults as he is with the kids,” enthuses Experimentarium’s communications officer Allan Richardt Jensen. “Most people know very little about the world of soap bubbles and people like Noddy and Levétee serve to expand that world.”
If your kids are looking for inspiration for their next school project, then this could be the place to find it. Noddy’s hope for his shows is that some kids will be drawn further into the subject and perhaps be captivated enough to develop skills with the bubbles. Others, he hopes, will go home and have a long conversation about bubbles in the hope that their stories catch the ear of someone else who loves these wet and wonderful things. So whether you’re two or 92, celebrate these enchanting creatures of water this weekend at the Bubble Festival.
Bubble Festival
Experimentarium, Tuborg Havnevej 7, 2900 Hellerup;
Open Sat &Sun 11:00–17:00; Tom Noddy’s shows: Sat & Sun, 12:00, 14:00 & 16:00;
Tickets: under-12s 105kr, over-12s 160kr;
