During last year's Fringe Festival there was a Summer of Love music festival in Macclesfield, South Australia. It was a hot day. The sprinklers on a building in the park provided a welcome water feature.
A giant inflatable leech was built for the school children to parade at the event. The fringe mascot was the brainstorm of Graham Thomas and designed and created by Tony Hannon with help from Janet Campbell. It was quite anatomically correct, made out of builder's plastic, packing tape and spray paint. The leech is a species local to the creeks in area.
Graham had thoughts about making it a Saint George and the Dragon event. We have some local cyclists who ride long and tall bikes made from welding together regular bikes into challenging mounts. The children were going to be the dragon and the cyclist would be St George. St George was expected to lose this encounter and be slimed by the kids. St George was a no show, but the children loved the leech. They had some fun controlling it in the wind. The leech was eventually tamed and tethered near the stage for the day.
The stage in the park showed a diverse program of music including an Aboriginal band, a Tibetan flautist, an Islamic Iraqi girl speaking her own soliloquy about peace, and a band with belly dancers. All were impressive and the range was enjoyable.
The event included good coffee, curry, kebabs, chilli sauces, quince preserves, clothes, hats, face painting, drum making, gelati, an exhibition of excellent paintings and life drawing. A CD History of the School was for sale.
A blog with a photo of the leech, by Janet Campbell.