sistercarrion

Missed the early afternoon fun with the spider, due to having to rest up my leg after yesterday walking about. However we made it out for 6pm, catching the evening stuff. While she was 'sleeping' in Lord Street the barriers were right up against her, allowing the kids and grown up kids to get really close and stroke her. Bumped into Ally briefly, though once things started moving we lost touch. One of the 'handlers' recognised me from yesterday, which made me grin. Ok, so wearing a bowler hat, having green hair, and being on the large side, I'm pretty recognisable. Still, it made me smile, and we had a cool chat while we were waiting about his experiences of the weekend, which was fun.
 

La Princesse looked *incredible* going through the main shopping stretch, seeming all the more enormous as she towered over the trees and shops. The handlers climbing on the legs to help avoid trees etc are so damn cool, one guy even rescuing a pair of trainers from a tree!

Stopping by the bandstand area, she had a fight with a digger, and there was flames to try to beat her back.. we followed her up to the Concourse Tower again cutting her off by the steps, and going through Lime Street Station. There was a fantastic fire show, and she was lifted once more onto the Tower.. with the operators still onboard! These guys have some SERIOUS bollocks. They finally abseiled down once she was back up there, under the cover of the snowstorm. Amazing stuff.

Once more I've taken a bazillion piccies *g*, and am bloody knackered. But I'm loving this weekend so damn hard! Tomorrow the Tunnel!

"The spider was built in Nantes and is 50 feet high weighing 37 tonnes.

Using 50 hydraulic axes of movement the spider took a year to build.

The technical requirements for the event are immense with 16 cranes being used over the five days along with six forklift trucks and eight cherry pickers.

There are 66 French personnel working on the project in Liverpool along with 20 British musicians and a 250 strong technical and support crew."

It'll also be covered on local media:
"You can listen to comprehensive coverage over the weekend on BBC Radio Merseyside 95.8FM.

At 7.30pm on 10 September, BBC One North West will screen La Machine in Liverpool.  Gordon Burns and Jayne Barrett present extensive coverage of the finale on Sunday and look back across the weekends highlights. The programme will be available on iPlayer after broadcast."

Liverpool Echo coverage