Firm’s Giant task keeps city visitor Xolo moving
A WEST Lancashire company has just completed its most unusual contract ever - helping animate Xolo, the canine star of Liverpool’s Giants spectacular.
Engineers from Burscough-based Cobalt Conveyors helped the 9ft high dog to run along a city centre street as part of the finale of Liverpool’s Dream, a four-day extravaganza presented by French street theatre company Royal de Luxe.
It was was the third and final visit to Liverpool by the Nantes-based giants, and was designed to mark the tenth anniversary of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year in 2008.
The company’s first visit was in 2012 when Sea Odyssey, marking the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, attracted 800,000 spectators.
Two years later, this figure rose to more than a million people when the company staged Memories of August 2014 as part of WWI centenary celebrations.
This time, Royal de Luxe artistic director Jean Luc Courcoult presented a new show, staged in Liverpool and Wirral, featuring for the first time the adventures of a little boy giant as well as a number of favourites from previous visits like the everpopular Xolo.
Cobalt made a bespoke belt conveyor to enable Xolo to run along the Strand on the touching last day of the visit, when the giants bade a fond farewell to more than a million people for the final time.
Cobalt managing director Simon Turner said: “Although we have been asked to supply conveyors for the TV and film industry on many previous occasions, this was certainly the most unusual and exciting - request we’ve ever handled.
“We were delighted to work with Event Design and Royal de Luxe on the project, and to be part of this superb event.
“It was a privilege to see how this talented company bring their massive puppets to life, and how they create personalities that have brought a huge amount of pleasure to hundreds of thousands of Merseysiders on three separate occasions.”
Cobalt Conveyors was established in Southport in 2007 before moving to Burscough in 2012.
The company provides systems for manufacturers in many sectors including packaging, warehousing, clothing, food processing, cosmetics, automotive and engineering.