Exciting news for a town just up the road from me.
Part of the Festival of Britain, now Unboxed, they are going to turn a disused oil platform into an art installation on the site of the old Lido
Great for tourists and locals I think. Banksy’s Dismaland was a huge success
I always loved the mud at low tide at Weston, my grandfather used to drive us there for a day out in his old Austin 7 when we lived in Cheltenham.
Good old Weston-super-mud, there’s nothing like it. How else would they trap the tourists and make them stay?
I’m glad you have happy memories of the seaside here, so many people do x
Have they built it?
They are just starting…… locals already complaining about the building noise!
So, the See Monster is nearly finished,
“SEE MONSTER is a retired rig from the North Sea, transformed into one of the UK’s largest public art installations to inspire global conversations about reuse, renewables and the great British weather.”
And last night there was a drone show to celebrate it “emerging from the sea” (good spin, eh?)
It was very good, if short, 7 minutes but a lot of people who’d travelled for an hour to see it were a bit disappointed
Apparently, these shows can’t be longer because of the battery charge of the drones
But we really enjoyed it, loads of people and a great atmosphere, good for the town
I think these shows will replace fireworks displays eventually, which is sad, because I like fireworks but I can see the logic
When I say “without wishing any disrespect” (to the council/designers etc, and not the residents), I would be lying. The platform looks absurd and as welcome an addition as that stupid fake hill think that was built near Marble Arch. Think they could have found an awful lot of better uses to recycle that metal.
Yup, there is a lot of feeling against it, not least because it was originally part of the Festival of Brexit, which they’ve renamed Unboxed to avoid conflict and negative associations
It’s funded by Central Government, not the local council and with the delays in setting it up, is costing the taxpayer 4.8 million
So a lot local people are angry at getting landed with an ugly white elephant that cost such a lot
And the local issue is that it’s in the Tropicana.
That’s the disused Art Deco swimming pool (where Banksy did Dismaland)
The pool was closed due to funding and is much missed and many local people want it restored. That could have been done for a very small fraction of that 4.8 million and would have been an asset to the town for years. Instead they get the See Monster plopped in the middle 
But it’s a done deed, can’t be undone and we all know governments and councils don’t listen to what people want
The drone show and visiting the platform are free and the children enjoyed it and I expect it will bring in tourists for local businesses
So I guess people will just make the most of the fait accompli but remember who is responsible for the fiasco and waste of money 
No problem with the light show. Would probably have been worth spending the money on a couple more sets of drones to lengthen the display or have it run a couple of times per evening, instead of having that ramshackle monstrosity on the front.
Were all aware that most people kinda like the status quo, but can get their heads around the artistic and innovative stuff that some imaginative people create and that the councils commission. But sometimes, they get it hopelessly wrong. I fear this is one of those cases, but time will tell
Well, I suspect so too but maybe we’ll both be wrong. I’ll go see when it opens and post some photos
