Bilbao Smurfs Statues for 50th Birthday

by Heiky | June 13, 2008 at 06:57 pm | 267 views | 2 comments

It's Smurfday in town! What else is three apples tall with a white hat, short tail and blue all over? Almost anyone from these last 3 generations can quickly tell you the answer. The Smurfs, those little cartoon gnomes who are turning 50 years old this year, still remained popular to this day and are making a comeback! White Smurf statues appeared everywhere on the streets in Bilbao, and it's a first-come-first serve, free-for-all smurf feast for the local fans. They were encouraged to decorate those pick-me-ups and enter them into a competition.

Bilbao Thousands of Smurfs appeared on the streets yesterday celebrating 50 years of their existence. The Smurfs have been touring Europe since January, when they popped up in Angoulême in central France. Since then, they have visited Holland, Belgium and Italy.

Smurfs are famously blue but the small statues that have appeared on the streets are pure white. Locals can pick up as many as they like, decorate them and enter them into a competition.

The creatures were designed by Pierre Culliford, the Anglo-Belgian cartoonist known as Peyo, and were intended to be secondary characters in the adventures of Johan et Pirlouit. With the words “Can't you look where you smurf? You nearly smurfed me!”, the Smurfs made their entrance into popular culture.

They were immediately popular and featured in 272 episodes of the comic adventure television series The Smurfs.

Although the public are encouraged to be creative when they paint the figures they find on the Bilbao streets, the real Smurfs, according to Peyo's wife, will always be blue. “They couldn't be green. They would have vanished in the vegetation. Red would have been too flashy and yellow, a bit unfortunate . . . only blue was left.”

Add a comment Comments (2)

rpshen
good stuff:

Heiky, I like this story. It's good stuff. Yay smurfs!

Tetra Snake

I have found this piece at Five Pointz several years ago. It no longer exist there, but I got a decent shot.

Tetra Snake has contributed a photo to this story.

Add a comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

June 13, 2008 at 06:57 pm by Heiky, 267 views, 2 comments

Crowd Power

rpshen
First Flagged at 6:59 PM, Jun 13, 2008 by rpshen
These members have powered this story:
 

closeSign in to NowPublic

is reporting from