Sharjah24: If you ever wondered what it was like for Neil Armstrong and other members of the Apollo 11 – the first manned mission to land on the Moon in 1969 – then the ongoing 15th annual Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival (SCRF) may help provide some answers.

For, the moonwalker, Davide Giavazzi is performing a rare stunt of weightlessness  – strapped to a custom-made crane and suspended in thin air – twice a day until Saturday (May 11) during the 12-day festival that is being organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) at Expo Centre Sharjah.

“We created this act as a special tribute in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. It premiered in my native Italy five years ago, but I am performing this act for the first time in the Middle East here at this festival,” said Giavazzi, the 37-year-old entertainer who’s been performing aerial, acrobatic and water shows around the world for over 16 years. 

“It wasn’t easy recreating the iconic moment but we tried our best using this special device, we call ‘gravity’, to enact the movement of an astronaut on the lunar surface as close as possible,” he added.
Held at the festival's main stage, ‘The Moonwalker’ show will provide visitors a unique blend of artistry and cosmic wonders, transporting both parents and children into the extraordinary realm of outer space, thanks to the mesmerising feats of Giavazzi. 

“You become breathless by the time you finish the show but seeing how much everyone’s enjoying your act, you realise it’s all worth it,” added the Italian who runs the Milan-based Elementz Art Entertainment company that designed this act specifically for SCRF. “What’s most rewarding is to see the children getting enthralled as they watch an astronaut's adventures in outer space unfold before their eyes,” Giavazzi further noted.

You can catch The Moonwalker performing in a pristine white astronaut suit with NASA and Apollo 11 emblazoned on his chest and an oxygen tank to boot, twice a day at the main lobby – 12pm and 7pm – until May 11. SCRF 2024 comes to a close on May 12.