Crowds gather for bamboo bridge, but good art takes time
By Paul Smith • Jul 19th, 2008 • Category: events, news
We’ve been talking about it for some weeks now and last night was the big event.
To mark the launch of the third SummerTyne festival, two riggers walked the length of the Bambuco bamboo bridge, lighting several hundred lanterns along its length.
Spanning the Tyne between the Millennium bridge and the Tyne bridge, the event drew several thousand people to the quaysides and bridges to see the spectacle.
Set to start at 10pm, forty five minutes later the two towers were still been lit and the curious onlookers had already started to leave in their droves. For the families whose children had stayed up late, the event proved something of a disappointment.
Crowds of photographers gathered along the steps of the Law Courts for the best vantage point as the lanterns on the giant Kerplunks were finally ignited, but not until near midnight. Good art takes a loooooong time.
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Paul Smith is the editor of newcastlecentric.com. He's quite a tall chap.
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Yeah I was pretty disappointed by the length of time it took. 10pm isn’t really going to be suitable for a family event.
What was most annoying, was the fact the event staff along the bridge (millenium eye) were moving people from the front of the bridge so we couldnt take pictures. We didnt get any reason for it, the staff were very rude, and threatened us with the police, and all for just taking pictures. It was like we had only 20 seconds to take a picture before they swept us away. And, the greatest injustice was that the guys with the video cameras were allowed to stay, what gives em more right than us, they are just like me, but with a video camera!