After 15 years of Arcadia Spectacular’s iconic spider providing a space for Glastonbury’s late-night punters to dance until the early morning, the performance art collective has returned to the fields with a completely new structure that metamorphosed an ex-military Royal Navy helicopter into a dragonfly.
Coming in at 30m long and 8.5m high, the installation stood tall overlooking much of Glastonbury, watching festivalgoers wandering from stage to stage during the day, but as the sun set, it welcomed world-renowned DJs as well as audience members to dive into a 360° immersive experience.
The Dragonfly began its journey over a year ago, as was explained by Katie Davies, Technical Production Manager at Arcadia Spectacular: “I was onsite last year when Pip [Rush, Creative Director] and Bert [Cole, Technical Director] showed us a model box that had tea strainers for eyes to make up The Dragonfly,” she commented. “They had the idea for a while, but that was the first time I saw any photos of what it would be.”
Taking TPi into the head of the stage on the penultimate day of the festival, we got to see that the inside maintained much of its original form of a helicopter, but this time not utilised as a weapon of war. “Arcadia’s MO is to recycle old military scrap, things that have been used for destruction and give it a new life and to use it as a point of reconnection and celebration,” Davies continued. “If it stands for anything, it’s a symbol of hope.” This message was very important for Jacob Kuenzler-Byrt, Stage Manager and Deputy Technical Production Manager at Arcadia. He elaborated: “It is very much part of the narrative of repurposing, the place of connection is so important and is at the heart of what we’re trying to do at Arcadia.”
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Words: Alicia Pollitt
Photos: Chris Cooper and Steve Bright (@stevebrightstudio)
