please empty your brain below
I remember well preparing the bus at very short notice at Leyton garage in order to carry the girl. Part of the top deck floor had to be cut away. You can see the girl in the bus beside the elephant.

Barry arnold | 06.05.16 - 7:41 a.m. | #

It really is unforgettable. I remember finding out about it through a photo in the Guardian of the elephant a few days before the event. I remember kindly crowd control guards making sure that my then small children had a chance to get up close to the girl. And I remember, a couple of years later, bumping into one of those guards at a very different event and exchanging memories with her about those perfect days in May. I didn't take photos but have the souvenir book produced by Artichoke and sometimes take it out for a reminisce. Striking for me - in terms of time elapsed - is that my eldest was 8 and at time and yesterday got his first chance to vote!

Joan | 06.05.16 - 8:15 a.m. | #

It was a very pleasant event, would be nice to see it return.
10 years ago writing Blogs was far more popular and the "Sultans Elephant" inspired me to start one, it still exists but I have not updated it for about 2 years.

John | 06.05.16 - 8:33 a.m. | #

This is a prime example of how your blog is invaluable to any study of our time.
The changes in technology in just 10 years is easy to forget when viewed from the present day.

You've reminded me also that this was one of the first posts of yours I read.
I was living abroad at the time and my mum told me about the puppets. When I googled to find out more, up came your blog, and the rest, they say, is history!

Cornish Cockney | 06.05.16 - 9:24 a.m. | #

One of the best things I've ever seen. I'm getting a lump in my throat just thinking about it now.

My first sight of it was turning the corner onto the Mall on that beautiful Friday evening to see a giant elephant swinging a tuktuk around with its trunk. There were hundreds, maybe a thousand people there, and every one of them knew that the wasn't a better place to be in the world at that moment.

Steve | 06.05.16 - 9:45 a.m. | #

My God, was that 10 years ago?! Anyway, would it happen today? No. Austerity. But the government and the London mayor still love their massive white elephants.

Uncle Audrey | 06.05.16 - 10:23 a.m. | #

Was just looking at my photos t'other day. It was absolutely wonderful and I'm pretty sure I learnt about it from you in the first place (as the rocket arrived). So thanks again (and for the memory!).

NiC | Homepage | 06.05.16 - 1:33 p.m. | #

The Sultan's Elephant was a breathtaking spectacle of street theatre especially the amazing mechanics of the elephant and the attention detail of the elephant. It was a visual sight to behold. Wish it would return too.

Sadly locally we have lost this year due to local Council cost cutting an extremely popular weekend festival of international street entertainers which attracted visitors from all over the country . A sad loss indeed.

Lynn | 06.05.16 - 2:39 p.m. | #

Can't believe this was 10 years ago. I would have said I'd been reading your blog for about 10 years but I was definitely several years in when you blogged this. I also was amazed when I saw them pre show passing by as a motorcycle courier.

Andy S | 06.05.16 - 5:06 p.m. | #

thanks dg!

| 06.05.16 - 6:35 p.m. | #

for anyone who is interested in more, see the same marionette girl with a marvelous black Doberman-type dog marionette, here. Go to the five minute mark to see the dog in all its glory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36PFht1bktU

| 07.05.16 - 2:29 p.m. | #

I saw them in 2014 in Liverpool as I was keen on doing things out of the 100-year-remberance of ww1. I got close to them on one day, but the crowds were so deep other places and especially at the weekend days.

http://jenikya.com/blog/2014/07/giants-in-liverpool.html

And I've also reminisced about the whole deal with the internet making things like this popular and people always using their phones as cameras and how i used to be one of the only ones with a camera and now everyone just gets in my way. (In my cable car post, I was thinking about the time I went to the Millennium Dome in 2000 and that led on to photography). http://jenikya.com/blog/2016/02/valentine-cable-car-london.html

jenn | Homepage | 07.05.16 - 11:13 p.m. | #











TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy