A giant goddess of the sea will be taking the Moray coast by storm this weekend – and she’s got attitude about the crisis in our oceans.
STORM – Scotland’s largest puppet at 10m tall – will be stalking Burghead on Saturday as part of the Source To Sea festival then she will be stomping around the streets of Nairn on Sunday as part of the town’s book and arts festival.
While the huge creature – inspired by folklore – is a thrilling spectacle that had drawn crowds on her appearances around Scotland’s coastline.
While celebrating our coastal communities, STORM also carries a serious message about our environmental impact on our oceans, according to the creative team at Vision Mechanics who called her into life.
“She’s a sea goddess with attitude and she’s got a message,” said Symon Macintyre, artistic director of Vision Mechanics, who created STORM along with creative director Kim Bergsagel.
“It’s not all about central government, we have to take responsibility for our own actions. STORM is a reminder of that. She’s saying: ‘You’re part of the problem, do something about it’.”
Moved to tears by the rising of STORM
STORM, made entirely from natural and recyclable materials, came into being to reflect this being Scotland’s Year Of Coasts And Waters and has appeared at towns ranging from North Berwick to Alloa and Glasgow to Anstruther.
Everywhere she goes, the huge puppet – which takes 10 people to operate – creates a massive stir with crowds gathering to watch her, said Symon.
“We had an email from someone in Anstruther who said: ‘We saw STORM rising in our town and it moved us to tears’. As she stands up to walk we have instant applause from the crowd watching,” he said.
“As she walks through the streets and stops, children want to come up to meet here. I think the reaction is joyous. We are watching people feeling bonded with each other again after being split up and celebrated and told not to see each other, not to celebrate.”
And that public response is part of the reason Vision Mechanics decided a mythical giant goddess was just the thing to spread awareness of the challenges and dangers of climate change.
“People notice that, they pay attention,” said Symon. “We stream everything live. We were in Glasgow, streaming the walk for Celtic Connections and we had 10,000 views. We just did Anstruther and about 3,000 people turned up and since then nearly 12,000 people have watched that stream online.”
‘Chipping away’ at climate change message
Kim said the team were aware that human nature means people may well hear the message, but not necessarily stick to it.
“But it’s just chipping away at it. You have to inspire people to care and that’s what we are hoping to do,” she said, adding in designing STORM, she took a global approach to the mythical and folklore strands that went into the end puppet.
The Vision Mechanics team are looking forward to their visit to Moray this weekend – especially Symon, who grew up in Nairn and often visited Burghead.
“It was always this wild place that had the burning of the Clavie. So it is iconic for me, coming back with this amazing giant puppet,” he said.
STORM is set to rise again on two more dates this year – in Oban on September 25 and Dundee on September 25.
How to see STORM this weekend
After that she will “retire” with her materials recycled and a “STORM grove” of trees being planted in the Caledonian forest to offset the carbon footprint of the project.
And Vision Mechanics themselves will retire from the large-scale puppet creations that have been their hallmark, such as the Big Man Walking which went across Scotland, as well as STORM
“As a company, we’ve become very aware of the amount of energy it’s taken to put this project on. We will be looking at doing big projects in future on a much more ecological basis,” said Symon.
“So it’s like a farewell for us, an end to the era of building these giant puppets.”
But there is still time to catch STORM when she takes to the streets of Burghead and Nairn this weekend between noon and 4pm. People are being asked to register for tickets for the event at visionmechanics.org
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