I've had to split this post into two - Mary and I saw over fifty dragons over two days and were all dragoned out by the end of the weekend! I'll write a post for each day and try and depict them in the order that we saw them, but there were so many and we had a certain amount of tracking and back-tracking across the city. Fab day and lovely and sunny too - what a bonus.
Scorcher was the first dragon we found at All Saints Green, about five minutes' walk from where I work and where we parked the car!
Bajestic (with his fleur-de-lis eyeball), sited outside John Lewis, was sponsored by the Norfolk Scouting Association - clearly!
Sapphire was a very gorgeous creature - situated in the haberdashery department of John Lewis - and had been draped and adorned with fabrics, buttons, beads and knitted leg warmers - a fab advert for the store!
Rosie at Orford Hill.
00Mustard, sponsored by our local TV station, Mustard TV, at Castle Gardens. Very James Bond!
Although not in my top ten favourite dragons - by some way, I have to admit! - she definitely had the best name - Dragon with the Girl Tattoo! At Castle Mound.
The Mother of Dragons at Castle Mound.
Buzz in Castle Mall.
Dreamland, also in Castle Mall.
Snap, again in Castle Mall.
Mighty Oakus at Castle Meadow.
George the Dragon outside the offices of the Eastern Daily Press, our local newspaper.
Clang on Market Avenue - this dragon was created by the Break charity and some of its young people. Break is the Norfolk based charity that works with children, young people and their families and at the beginning of October, all dragons (except for this one) will be auctioned off to raise funds for Break. Clang will be going back to live with Break.
At the same time as the 84 large dragons gracing our city, 120 baby dragons were on show in local shops and restaurants. These tiny dragons had been created by school children and will all be going back to live in the schools that gave life to them! Mary and I didn't make a point of trying to find them all, but we did want to go and see this one in Warings - a local interior designer/ coffee shop - I'd quite like this one in my garden!
Gogo Mosaic at Tombland.
Biggles at Cathedral Close. We spent some time chatting to the artist's in-laws here - they were very very excited as it was the first time they'd seen Biggles in the flesh!
Norvica Serafina at Cathedral Close.
Daisy at Cathedral Close - she was very pretty!
Cavell at Tombland. The artist, Samuel Thomas, exhibits at Cromer and Sheringham and I've been coveting one of his prints for ever - love this art deco style.
Steam, the Clockwork Dragon - at Palace Street. By Mik Richardson, the same artist who created Biggles.
Cyril at St Andrews Hall.
Gogo Steggles at Charing Cross.
Sabra at St Benedicts Street. I didn't like Sabra to start with, I didn't really see the point of him. (Admittedly, I felt that about quite a few of the dragons!) But this one was just weird, until Mary pointed out that it was St George and we even saw his horse. The inspiration for this for the artist, Maz Jackson, was the mural in St Gregory's church, just behind the dragon. What church? What mural? A detour was called for to go and investigate and I'm so glad we did!
This church has been turned into a funky antique centre with jazz playing and everything! And here is the mural!
Argon at St John Maddermarket.
I love Gogo Madder at the Maddermarket Theatre! Mary and I spent ages trying to work out all the Shakespeare plays covering him until we spotted the key to them all - spoilsports! Fab!
Gorgeous George the Beast of Beeston at Gaol Hill. (How do they come up with these names?!) This one is also created by Samuel Thomas, him of the covet-able prints!
Ascalon outside the Guildhall. (We overheard a really funny conversation about this one. We'd just read the inspiration behind this one for the artist Kate Munro. Apparently dragons were easily camouflaged within their environment, so Ascalon's decoration mimics the flintwork in the building behind. One very jaded young man walked past and said, "oh, I didn't see him, he must have blended into the building beyond". His friends just ignored him, but I must admit I sniggered!)
McFly at City Hall.
Mr Wing at Millennium Plain.
Luda in the Forum. Kieron Williamson, the artist, is thirteen years old and has been producing outstanding watercolour paintings since he was six. He lives in north Norfolk, near Holt, and his exhibitions sell out within minutes - in fact, a number of works are bought by overseas buyers on line. He made his first £1.5 million by aged ten! My prediction is this will be highest selling dragon, come the auction on 1 October!
Dragonfly in the Forum.
Tuppence in the Forum.
Gogo King Tut at Millennium Plain.
Rise and Demise of the Dinosaurs at Millenium Plain. (Another in the running for daftest name.)
Norwich Twilight at Norwich Market.
Bling in Norwich Market - this one took some finding. He was in a glass case hiding in one of the vacant market stalls - the sheer genius of this siting was that he had mirrors on three sides, so was reflected over and over - stunning.
Skipper in the Royal Arcade.
Eye Spy Cecil in Haymarket - outside the opticians that sponsored him obviously!
Gogo Captain USA at the top of Hay Hill.
Morgan at the bottom of Hay Hill.
Patch at Chapelfield Plain.
Indy Gogo 500 in Chapelfields.
Knickerbockergloria in Chapelfield.
Some of the baby dragons in Chapelfields (including one based on Grayson Perry!)
Soup Dragon (complete with Andy Warhol hairdo) in Chapelfields.
Circuit on St Stephens Street.
Duff on St Stephens Street.
Dennis on St Stephens Street.
So, that was the Saturday dragon extravaganza. 40-odd dragons and seven hours later, we were exhausted so gave up to go home to get ready to pop over to Mum and Dad's to see the gang. A brilliant day, but pretty tiring.
Episode Two to follow!
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