On Saturday, July 11 Eastern State Penitentiary will team up with The Bearded Ladies to present the entire French Revolution in an hour-long spectacle of song, dance, beheading, and raining Tastykakes for the penitentiary’s annual Bastille Day festival.
For those of you not familiar with Bastille Day, also known as La Fête Nationale in French, it’s a holiday commemorating the day in 1789 when crowds stormed the Bastille, a fortress used as a prison in Paris. The event marks the beginning of the French Revolution.
The Bastille – standing 100 feet tall and surrounded by a moat more than 80 feet wide – was originally constructed in 1370 as a bastide, or “fortification,” to protect the walled city of Paris from English attack. It was first used as a state prison in the 17th century, and its cells were reserved for upper-class felons, political troublemakers, and spies. Most prisoners there were imprisoned without a trial under direct orders of the king.
The storming of the Bastille became an important symbol for the French Republican movement and is now celebrated as a national holiday in France. Here in Philadelphia we celebrate the holiday annually by holding a reenactment of the storming of the Bastille at Eastern State Penitentiary, emceed by the voice of Paris herself, Edith Piaf, and including appearances by Napoleon, Joan of Arc, Benjamin Franklin, and a six-foot French Baguette.
This year’s performance will tackle education, the departure of Mayor Nutter, the arrival of the Pope, and other recent Philadelphia phenomena, and it will feature confetti cannons, stilt walkers, a cardboard horse, and a catwalk so long it divides the whole of Fairmount Avenue.
The event, which will take place on Fairmount Avenue and is free to the public, will begin at 5:30 p.m. Dozens of French revolutionaries will storm the grim walls of Eastern State Penitentiary, capture Marie Antoinette (portrayed by Terry McNally, co-owner of London Grill and Paris Wine Bar) and, ignoring her mocking cries of “Let them eat Tastykake!” will drag her to a real, functioning guillotine as 3,000 Tastykakes are flung from the penitentiary’s towers.
Here is a rundown of events for the day:
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Tour Eastern State Penitentiary. Last entry will be at 4:00 p.m.
2:30 p.m.
Pre-show entertainment
5:30 p.m.
Bastille Day cabaret performance
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Explore Eastern State Penitentiary after-hours
6:30 p.m.
French-themed food and drink specials at select Fairmount restaurants
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