Anthony Carroll As tightrope walker Didier Pasquette peered over Yarmouth's town centre yesterday, he began to realise the dangerous challenge that lay ahead, or afoot, of him.

Anthony Carroll

As tightrope walker Didier Pasquette peered over Yarmouth's town centre yesterday, he began to realise the dangerous challenge that lay ahead, or afoot, of him.

The French high-wire artist is preparing to cross over the Market Place 15m in the air with only his innate sense of balance to stop him from plunging to his doom.

Didier is walking the 70m from the Market Gates shopping centre to the Palmers Department Store at 6pm this Saturday as part of Yarmouth's first Out There festival.

Yesterday, the 40-year-old veteran of hundreds of tightrope walks kept a careful eye on the preparations for his daredevil stunt.

Didier will only have a pole to help him keep balance and if he falls, his 20 years of arduous training will instinctively lead to him reaching out to grab the metal tightrope to save his life.

If not he could end up falling 15m through the Out There Festival marquee or crash into one of Yarmouth popular chip stalls.

As he helped set up the tightrope walk, Didier told the EDP: “You need a good feeling in your head before you would go on a tightrope like this. You must stay positive and avoid all stress. I have never walked over a town centre like this before and so far I feel very positive about doing it. I may even do some shopping first and carry it across.”

Although Didier did admit he was only joking about carrying some shopping, he did say that he would stop and wave to the Market Place crowd during his 10-minute sky-high ordeal.

The 70m wire should be in place by today and a team of workers will hold stabilising wires connected to the tightrope as Didier crosses it.

Full programme at www.outtherefestival.com