Macnas are back with Con Mór, The Giant at Macnas HQ, and they are inviting kids and grown-ups to join them in welcoming this special visitor to Galway!
This year, Macnas are back with something big (very big!) and a little different! Come down to Macnas HQ at Fisheries Field, Galway to see Con Mór, The Giant situated on the banks of the River Corrib on Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th October 2022.
Noeline Kavanagh, Artistic Director of Macnas, said; "Con Mór celebrates the Macnas tradition of conjuring Giants into being... Who can ever forget Gulliver on the beach?! This year we are inviting the public to see Con Mór at Fisheries Field, our home in the centre of Galway city, where he will be for 48 hours only! It's a rave, it's a pilgrimage, it's the Bank Holiday Weekend! There will be pop-up performances on site across the two days. Bring your feathers, your messages of hope and your wellies and we’ll see you there..."
"For fans, devotees and lovers of another great Macnas tradition, The Halloween Parade, Macnas will reclaim the streets of Galway next year, October 2023, and we can’t wait!"
A stellar team of local and international talent have come together to present Con Mór, The Giant, to life with Director Noeline Kavanagh joined by Co-Designers Paul McDonnell and Dave Young, Lighting & Special Effects Designer Richard Babington, Costumer Designer Cherie White and Composer & Sound Designer Mathew Berrill, as well as local structural steel engineers Pat Rynn Engineering Ltd.
The Bank Holiday weekend will also see pop-up performances from the Macnas Drummers, Macnas Brass, Macnas Youth Theatre and Macns Stilt Ensemble across the city, made up of performers and participants from Macnas’s year round education and public participation programme.
Famed for making giants in both familiar and unexpected landscapes around the world, this year Macnas will bring the magic to their own doorstep with Con Mór emerging for the first time at Fisheries Field in Galway city, the company’s home for over 35 years.
And one for the diary! The spectacular storytellers will light up the streets of Galway once again in 2023, with the world-famous Macnas parade scheduled to make its return at Halloween next year.
The Story of Con Mór, The Giant
Inventors and explorers from all over the world are baffled by evidence of an ancient giant living underneath the Macnas workshop at Fisheries Field in Galway city. Macnas called on Professor Marjorie Morrigan, an expert on Giants & Where They Come From for help.
Marjorie told them – "This giant seems to have been here for centuries. There is a very large iron nose, so big and rusty, you could park a car in one of the nostrils."
Marjorie Morrigan went on to confirm that this big fella belongs to the legendary Tuatha Dé Danann tribe. His name is Con Mór and he comes from an ancient Island of Giants off the coast of Connaught. Con Mór was so famous across Ireland for his love of birds and nature, his friends used to call him The Bird King!
To help welcome him to Galway, Macnas is asking kids to make or find a feather - with a message of hope for the future – and deliver it to Con Mór at Macnas over the Halloween Bank Holiday Weekend. Visit www.macnas.comfor more information.
What kind of feather should I make for Con?
- It can be any size, colour or shape of feather!
- A real feather, or design your own!
-Or cut out the feather below and customise your own special species of feather - with paints, crayons, glitter, ribbons, anything goes!
A message for Con Mór:
- Write a message of hope for the future on the feather or attach it to the feather with staples, string or thread.
- The message should include your name, your age and where you live.
- And your hope for the future.
How to get your feather to Con Mór:
- Deliver to CON MÓR in person in Galway on Saturday 29th or Sunday 30th October!
- Post to him, his address is: CON MÓR, The Giant, Macnas, Fisheries Field, Galway
- Take a picture and email to him: admin@macnas.com
Grown Ups! Download a Creative Pack with a message for kids from Marjorie Morrigan, plus a feather template to cut out and colour at www.macnas.com
CON MÓR, The Giant is made possible by support from the Arts Council, Galway City Council, University of Galway, Smyth’s Toys Superstores, Connacht Hospitality Group, AIB, Acorn Insurance, Galway County Council, The Latin Quarter and PWC.
Photos by @emjcamera.
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