It’s a dark rain-swept night and a winter seaside story in Girvan begins to unfold. Crag Community Arts Hogmanay event, Strandline, is an illuminated trail around the town traversing time and space with lanterns and lights. Strandline, a magical transformation of the quiet places and dark spaces in Girvan’s old town created over 6 weeks by the CRAG Arts team, a group of artists and imagineers, explores Girvan’s past from its tourism heyday, the bucket and spade Costa Del Clyde holiday, to its prehistoric and industrial pasts; using lanterns sculptures, sound and light, the sounds of space and the rhythmic clack of the loom and spoken word accompany your journey from seaside to space.
It’s a mixture of local tales and stories, the real and imagined, says lead artist David Powell, a magical trail of 20 installations, clocks, sandcastles, fish, fishermen and rocket ships, stone circles and spacemen, chips and ice creams, appear around the town for one night only. Withies, willow, steel, tissue, glue and paint coalescing into a trail of light. Folk travel from north and south as a unique experience unfolds for one night only.
It’s a magical night when smiles and rain mingle with laughter and lanterns. It’s the west of Scotland on Hogmanay and spirits are high. Visitors and townsfolk are stepping out for the night, following map and phone as they wander around the trail, the lost and the illuminated.
