Dead man parading

Mexico City’s tourism authorities have realised that if you build it, they will come

People dressed in traditional costumes participate in a parade during Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico City. Mario Guzman / EPA

Once a year, Mexicans gather with their family members to remember their loved ones who have died. The celebrations, while lively and involving music and food, are not normally accompanied by a parade – something that will puzzle viewers of the most recent James Bond film Spectre, the opening sequence of which involved Mr Bond hanging out of a helicopter in the middle of a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City. But this year the capital city, seeing the opportunity for tourism, has made a parade a part of its celebrations.

A case of art fabricating life, life imitating art and tourists joining in. The same is, of course, true of our own big cities, which have been the stars of several movies. All good, as long as the tourists don’t think of hanging off the Burj Khalifa (Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol), driving a Lykan HyperSport out of Etihad Towers (Furious 7) or engaging the TIE fighters of the Empire in a dogfight in the desert (in a little known science fiction franchise).