Synonymous with Glastonbury Festival, where it attracts thousands of partygoers each evening, the 15-metre-high Arcadia ‘Spider’ is an impressive, if unusual, example of engineering. Science writer Abigail Beall spoke to Arcadia Co-founders Bertie Cole and Pip Rush about how the Spider was created.
As the clock strikes midnight on each night of the Glastonbury music festival, those who make it to the Arcadia stage are treated to a spectacular show. In front of their eyes, a 15-metre-high, 50 tonne, mechanical, fire-breathing ‘alien’ spider hosts a DJ in its thorax, shooting out lasers and sparks while smaller metal spiders crawl overhead. In the middle of the dark field, flame-throwers, cannons and lasers operate in time with ground-shaking music, while sporadic blasts of heat produce shockwaves so powerful that they almost knock you over.
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Abigail Beall 