Europe's tallest building wants to offer 'Castellers' on its top floor

London (CNA).- Located in London's Tower Bridge area and standing 390 metres in height, 'The Shard' is the tallest building in Europe. Despite being quite a new attraction, more than one million visitors from all over the world visited its viewpoint on the 72^nd floor during its first year in operation. 'The View from the Shard' has hosted a wide range of events to make the experience even greater: silent discos, summer and winter experiences and in the near future a very ambitious project: a traditional Catalan human tower performance. "The image would be amazing" stated 'The View from the Shard's marketing head Anna Domingo. Although she admits that there is not yet a specific date, she declared to CNA that they are "working very tight" with the Delegation of the Catalan Government to the UK "to promote the Catalan culture also from here". As part of this strategy of promoting the Catalan brand, 'The View from the Shard' will also include Catalan in the languages of its visitor multimedia guide.

"We don't have a concrete date yet" admitted Domingo "but the conversations are going in the right direction and we are very excited". "Obviously there are limitations such as the height of the space and the many security measures that we have to take into account" she admitted "but that's the idea and I hope that we can ultimately do it". "It would make us really happy and the image would be amazing." Emphasised Domingo.

The relationship between Castellers and iconic international spots

The relationship between Castellers and skyscrapers is not new. In 2012, Castellers de Vilafranca, one of the most iconic groups of Castellers, displayed a tower on 'Rooftop 230', on the 20^th floor of a building located on New York's fifth avenue, right in front of the Empire State building.

Besides this, the same group took part in 'Frankfurt's Skyscraper Festival' and more recently were one of the main attractions of Shanghai's ‘Barcelona Catalonia Culture Week’. They displayed the traditional human towers in different iconic spots around the financial capital.

Castellers have also been displayed in London before. This was in 2014, on front of Tower Bridge, one of the British capital’s most iconic spots. The performance was part of  the 'Catalans want to vote' initiative which organised simultaneously displayed human towers in Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Lisbon, Rome, Barcelona and London.

Catalan language in the multimedia guide

According to Domingo, this is not the only action that will be taken to extend Catalonia's culture and symbols further from its frontiers. "We will include Catalan in 'The view from the Shard's visitor multimedia guide" she announced "it will be available in June and will be added to the existing languages", which are English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. "We have many visitors from Catalonia" she stated.

One million visitors in its first year of operation

Although it is a quite recent attraction, 'The view from the Shard' received more than one million visitors in its first year of operation, in 2013. "We are definitely a new attraction to add to London's must-do things" she stated. "We receive tourists from all over the world, mostly English but also Americans, French and Italians" explained Domingo and added that Italians "have a special connection with the building as it was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano". 'The View from the Shard's marketing strategy also focuses on attracting local visitors, "Londoners must be aware that they have an amazing viewpoint" she emphasised "they have the chance to see their city from a totally new perspective".