fireworks

Parade of the Macnas as part of the Bram Stoker festival. @bramstokerdub @macnasireland #parade #festival #dublin #ireland #bramstoker #macnas #puppet #rain #autumn #halloween #warewolf #crow #raven #stag #deer

For the last few years, Dublin City has hosted the Bram Stoker Festival. This is a week long festival that runs right before Halloween and celebrates everything about Bram Stoker and books like Dracula. As time has gone on, the festival has rolled into a week long celebration of Creepyness, horror, Vampires, and anything to do with Halloween and spooky Samhain tales. The best part of the festival is that most events are free.

This year, there was a parade that started from 3 different locations in the city center, all converging on Wolf Tone Square, behind the Church Bar & restaurant in the city center. Each segment of the parade included a different giant animated “puppet” on wheels, a band / musicians, and a following of the watchers from the segment of the Parade. The parade spectacle (puppets) are owned by Macnas – an Irish performance company out of Galway. When I saw the preview, I thought:

Who doesn’t love puppets?

and Had to go. From their website at: http://www.bramstokerfestival.com/event/macnas/

The Macnas were designed to tell a story – of “Danu, Goddess of the Divine and Dark: brutal and beautiful, warrior and mother, hallowed and holy, she protects and provokes, takes flight and goes underground.
Mummers and drummers follow and seek. Demons and angels love and loathe, the dead dance and the living transform. Men become gods, fools become Kings, souls are sanctified, reptiles are rarefied and the city streets transform as the journey unfolds.”

Thus it was that B and I left work, took the bus to town and then proceeded down Mary Street in the pouring rain. After waiting nearly 1.5 hours (ok we did go shopping to pass the time) we were quite soaked (even with our umbrellas, as you can see above) but filled with excitement as we could hear the pops and bangs of the fireworks, feel the drumbeat and marching from up the street… and then… to our delight, the festivities began. Closer and closer they came…

Perched at the T junction, we were in the perfect spot. First came the giant Raven (Never more!) flapping his wings and moving his head… and accompanied by a blaring brass band in a cage. Below them were people dressed as various creepy characters like lizards and chameleons… all dancing to the music.

As they passed and turned to go into the square, we looked to our left to discover the next segment of the parade was headed our way…. The Giant Stag… was coming up, followed by gnomes, witches and ghouls!

Finally, from the third point up Mary Street came the sound of drummers *thud* *thud* *thud* and out of the crowd appeared a giant Wolf and the Devine Danu, a nearly 4 story tall female puppet whose head turned, hands and feet moved, and eyes blinked to survey the swirling crowd around her.

Moving eyes, hands, feet on Danu.

We followed Danu and the Stag into the square (the weather still being bleak and rainy) over puddles and muddy packed dirt and up onto some benches where we could see the party begin. Dancers with fire lit torches swirled, The lizard and chameleon costumed individuals pulsated around the crow, and the gnomes and witches made wise cracks next to the giant horned Stag.

Dancing beasties

Gnomes and Witches

As the music reached a cacophony of sound and colored flashing lights moved with the party spectacle suddenly there was a pause… A flare was lit… and then….

FIREWORKS!

From the top of the buildings in the square, a series of white fireworks shot into the sky to the oohs and ahhs and cheers of the crowd. Halloween week in Dublin has begun!

*Special thanks to the Bram Stoker Festival for sponsoring the free event, and Macnas performance company for really making the spectacle special!*

New Years for me
was pretty fun, but very cold. The temperatures outside were about -5
C (22-23 F). Because of that, I bundled up grabbed both cameras and
then headed out.

Traditionally, the 2 KM (1 mile) area between the Brandenburg gate
and the Victory column are blocked off for the biggest party of the
year. It gathers upwards of a million people packing into the area
(we’re talking you can’t move – even if you want to) to watch the
fireworks, drink champaigne, and ring in the New Year.

At the halfway point, there’s a ferris wheel set up –

and at either end are stages. There’s also plenty of
beer tents and other things. Jade and I met up at the Main Train
Station, and walked over, planning on seeing how everything went.
After pausing for a few photographs of the ferris wheel….

We headed into the crowds where we promptly became stuck in the crowd for about a half hour….

before we finally gave up and pushed our way
back out. Because when you go through security, they send you into a
“chute” and then block off the sections behind the crowds, once you’re
in you’re in. There’s not really a way to get out. This is done to
prevent stampedes and for safety – but the funny thing is once you’re
in – if you want out, you have to climb a fence. So, when we decided to
leave, we had to follow the few trying to get out of the section, climb
on an empty beer keg, over a fence, then back over another empty keg.
Ahh the joy of getting out of the crowd.

Thing is that once we
were out of the crowd, we were stuck in the 1 block radius between the
party and those waiting to get inside the party. Not bad – just
interesting. Why? Because from here, you could see all the spotlights
changing color:

We also could see the lovely Brandenburg Gate and the setup –

But
what was really cool was as we went to leave. As we walked past the
Jewish Holocaust memorial, it was a bit strange. The place was
deserted, surrounded by fences keeping the revellers inside and around
the Brandenburg gate, hopefuls waiting to get into the party – and the
barricade fences around the Embassy. We and the security people were
nearly the only ones, and I took a moment to reflect. It was then that
one of the buildings in the background (where there’s a night club and
apartments) started having fireworks shooting off from the rooftop. It
was beautiful and yet eerie to realize that despite the joy at the
coming new year, there are lots among us who never made it home.

From
there, we headed to Potsdamer Platz and caught the Sbahns over to
Alexanderplatz for dinner. We hung out over by the TV tower, watching
people shoot off their fireworks, and at 11:30 PM, headed over to the
Main Train Station. It’s a straight shot – and we couldn’t have timed
it more perfectly. By the time we went down the stairs, and walked
outside, it was midnight and the celebrations had begun:

We
lucked out – because Jade and I had the best of three worlds – space to
breathe and take photos, a great spot to watch all the fireworks (from
the Gate area and the parking lot) and a fast ride home since we could
see the crowds from the party swarming in our direction. So, from me to
all of you, I wish you have a very save and

And in the end, don’t forget about the CLEAN UP!!

Phoenix Rose's Blog

The Chronicles of a Girl, Her Dog, and a Lifelong Journey…

Macnas Giant Puppet Halloween Parade

Happy New Year 2009