SEE Monster leaves town with a bang
WESTON-SUPER-MARE’S towering SEE Monster has bowed out of town with a bang – with a light and firework show.
The art installation, which closed on Sunday after an eight-week run at the Tropicana, put on a surprise light show on Friday night.
The show – which ran alongside the Fireworks at Sea event at Weston’s Grand Pier – attracted large crowds to the seafront.
A SEE Monster spokesman said: “It was a fitting way to say farewell to Weston-super-Mare after eight amazing weeks.”
The decommissioning process of the 35-metre, 450-tonne former gas platform will now start and take until January to complete. Plants installed across the monster, including in the garden lab, will now be planted in parks across the seaside town as a lasting legacy.
The cloud portal will also be recommissioned for use elsewhere while the main structure will be cut up and recycled. Tens of thousands of people have climbed aboard the monster since it opened at the end of September. People are still able to visit the installation via the online virtual tour.
Official visitor numbers are expected to be released later this week. The council is planning to do a full economic assessment of the impact of SEE Monster now it has closed.
SEE Monster was supposed to open at the beginning of the summer holidays in July to make the most of the main holiday season. But its opening was hit by a series of delays, with it not opening its doors until September 24.
Council chiefs and businesses say the delays helped extend the normal tourist season and brought additional people to the town. The installation was commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK – a free, national collection of ten largescale, public art engagement projects costing £120 million to showcase the UK’s creativity and innovation to the world.
The SEE Monster has cost millions – all funded by the Government – although the exact cost is unknown. The National Audit Committee has now confirmed it will be investigating the cost of the UNBOXED festival.
The inquiry comes after Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee chairman and Conservative MP Julian Knight wrote to the NAO demanding an inquiry into the price of the UNBOXED projects – four times the cost of celebrations for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. North Somerset Council is now considering options for the future of the Tropicana following SEE Monster’s exit. Options on the table include handing over the venue to an events operator and even selling the landmark building.