Giant puppets to parade across the sands at St Ninian's Isle

A carnival of twelve-foot puppets is heading for the tombolo at St Ninian's Isle in June, and the organisers want folk to join in. It's the work of local artist Alex Purbrick, who's spent months running workshops to build the puppets and their costumes, with a music score from the children of the Bigton Collective and dancers from the Shetland Community School of Ballet.

The figures are drawn from island folklore: Gryla the ogress of the wild hills, her consort Flukler the wizard giant who lived on Fetlar, a njuggle (a Shetland water horse) called Nessa, and the Norse serpent Jormungandr. And skeklers, Shetland's straw-clad guisers. Purbrick took the idea from a Cornish collective, The Lost Giants, who've been doing this for thirty years.

The free parade runs 2-4pm on Sunday 28 June. Around 50 to 60 people have already had a hand in it, and they're after a few more, including, as Purbrick puts it, "two strong folk" to be the legs of the giants.