Tightrope walker going 23 stories up

BUFFALO, N.Y., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A French high-wire artist announced plans to walk the tight rope for 150 feet while more than 23 stories above the ground in New York state.

Didier Pasquette said he will walk a tightrope Thursday stretched between the twin replicas of the Statue of Liberty at the Liberty Building in Buffalo, the Buffalo News reported Wednesday.

"It's the only place in the world where I am alone. Nobody can come with me on my wire if it's not a high-wire worker," Pasquette said Tuesday.

The feat is planned to kick off the "Beyond/In Western New York" arts event, which organizers said will involve more than 100 local, national and international artists.

Louis Grachos, director of Albright-Knox Art Gallery, which helped to organize the event, said the tightrope walk is the perfect way to begin the arts festival.

"As we started to talk about the project, we noticed that many people knew and loved the Liberty Building as a symbol of Buffalo. The poetry of this great French artist walking between the two Statues of Liberty is going to be a wonderful moment, I think, in our history," Grachos said.