Experience The Arrival Of Drewyn While 'waking Corwen's Giant'
Friday 26th Apr 2024
A visual art extravaganza will be taking place at Corwen on the 23rd of March when the local community awakes one of the sleeping giants of the area. Drewyn the giant will wake up and walk invisibly (but loudly) through the landscape of Corwen leaving gigantic footprints as he travels.
He’ll then fall back to sleep - leaving an impression in the ground where he lies. Members of the community and visitors to Corwen will have the opportunity to experience it all including the wonderful sounds and sights of Drewyn.
Waking Corwen’s Giant has been created by artist Gordon Rogers of Structure & Agency and is led by the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB in partnership with Addo and the local community and has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government.
Celebrating the Year of Discovery the aim is to provide the opportunity to explore the folk lore and mythology of giants in Wales and bringing to life the story of local giant Drewyn.
Throughout the event visitors will find out more about Drewyn as a figure of kindness and his defining act of creating Caer Drewyn hill fort as a gift for his sweetheart - a milk maid - as a place for her to keep her cattle.
On his way down from Caer Drewyn, as well a leaving a trail of footprints he’ll drop a variety of personal belongings - it turns out he has a hole in his pocket - and visitors will be able to follow this trail of clues which reveal his interactions with neighbouring giants and hint at his ongoing relationship with the mysterious Sweetheart.
The concept behind Waking Corwen’s Giant was developed and designed by artist Gordon Rogers of Structure and Agency who developed the process with engineer John Kettles ‘Much of the evidence in the landscape that we traditionally attribute to Giants is often the result of huge geological energy such as volcanic plugs and glacial erratics. So our vision for Drewyn was of a being that is made of this energy. Giants must exist as the stuff they’ve made is everywhere so its obvious that Giants are also invisible otherwise we’d see them all the time. The only way you’d know one was walking by would be seeing their footprints appear in the ground’
Ceri Lloyd, AONB Sustainable Development Officer added ‘Waking Corwen’s Giant is an opportunity to celebrate the myths and legends of the area while bringing a lesser-known local story to the forefront. Working with the local community and businesses to promote the town of Corwen and conserving our environment, the aim is to link in with other organisations and businesses and encourage people to visit throughout the year and enjoy the natural beauty of the area.’
Waking Corwen’s Giant will be open to the local community and visitors to attend (limited number of tickets) and anyone wishing to attend and experience it all on the 23rd of March will need to register their place at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/waking-corwens-giant-deffro-cawr-corwen-tickets-58280687104.
