Gojira unleashed a massive inflatable whale during ‘Flying Whales’ at their sold-out Paris show.
Gojira took their Paris stop to surreal heights over the weekend, unleashing a massive inflatable whale that drifted over the crowd during their sold-out show at Accor Arena. The moment occurred on November 30 as the band kicked into the intro of their 2005 track ‘Flying Whales’, turning a long-standing fan in-joke into an arena-sized spectacle.
The band shared footage of the airborne prop the following day, showing the gigantic blow-up creature floating above the audience, appearing to be guided around the venue by drones. ‘Flying Whales’ first landed on the band’s 2005 breakthrough album From Mars To Sirius.
The imagery has since become so entwined with Gojira’s identity that an entire Facebook community, Gojira Whaleposting, now sits at nearly 20,000 members. Fans regularly bring inflatable whales of their own to shows, tossing them around in mosh pits as a kind of unofficial tradition.
Check out the video posted by the band as well as fan-filmed footage below:
What makes Gojira’s whale deployment notable is that it runs counter to something frontman Joe Duplantier once said about the fan trend. Back in 2021, he admitted he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the sea of plastic whales appearing at gigs. “I actually dislike fans bringing inflatable whales to shows,” he said. “I’m trying to express something spiritual and otherworldly, and it ends up being a bunch of plastic objects thrown at people. When I look at this paradox, I’m cringing a little bit. But that’s personal. This band is not my band; it’s everybody’s band. They want to come to the show, have fun and do their own thing.”
The November 30 performance marked Gojira’s second time headlining Accor Arena, following their first-ever arena run in 2023. With their current French tour underway, we’ll have to see if more massive water mammals are on the horizon, or if this was the band’s fan’s white whale moment.
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