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Strandbeests prove kind of tame
By adamg on Sat, 08/22/2015 - 5:14pm
Tony Grima was among the hundreds who traveled up to Crane Beach this morning to see the Dutch strandbeests marching along the sand. And he reports he was among the hundreds who were less than impressed:
Seems like the consensus is that the Strandbeest event/viewing at Crane Beach this morning was... underwhelming at best. Attached is a photo of the beest being brought out to the beach at about 9:30. Much to our surprise, based on the photos and videos, the Strandbeests are tiny - the size of a smartcar, maybe? And the crowd was enormous - you can see a bit of the crowd waiting on the beach in the picture:
No way for us or most people to get a look at the beests in action; we only saw the tops of their sails over the crowd and the raised arms with smartphones in front of us. The organizers should have roped off a large area for the beests to walk in; instead, the people crowded in and had to be repeatedly asked to move back 50 feet or more. After half an hour standing around, we walked up to Castle Hill instead and greatly enjoyed the house and grounds. The man at the Castle Hill desk reported that he'd heard nothing but disappointment from visitors about the beests. Hope the Strandbeest visits to Boston will be better organized.
They're scheduled to walk around Boston City Hall Plaza on Friday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and Dewey Square on Friday between 4:30 and 7 p.m.
Ginger Saariaho adds:
They were cool. But not nearly cool enough to justify an hour of bumper to bumper traffic followed by a three mile trek to the beach for about ten minutes of watching them be pushed along the sand by a team of event organizers.
Maryr also adds.
Crowds were insane and the police were randomly blocking off/reopening road to Crane Beach. Gave up and went to wander Essex.
Free tagging:
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Comments
Still looking forward to
Still looking forward to seeing them in Boston. Will lower my expectations based on the reactions from the people at Crane Beach.
Hope the drone was being operated by event organizers... those things are annoying. Seeing them at beaches more and more lately.
Drone
Yes, from what I could see the drone was operated by event organizers. And luckily it was only launched periodically. Once during the procession (as shown) and another couple of times while they were walking on the beach. Those things are indeed annoying in general but probably necessary in this case to document the event.
The funniest thing I saw yesterday was one of the hippie-types admonishing the drone operator for taking away from the spirit of the event (the Strandbeests operate on wind power only, man). He had a point I guess, and I had a good laugh.
#strandbust
#strandbust
Not the "real" beests
I heard that the pop up exhibits are only getting the mini beasts, not the full size ones. (source: friend who braved the traffic to see them)
They were "real"
They were 'real' in that they were made out of PVC pipes and plastic sails, and walked up the beach from wind power. But they were not "real big." They were definitely of the small variety. I braved the traffic to see them too.
Why not just on a parking lot?
Much less trouble. BTW, walkers inspired by the Strandbeest have graced the Playa at Burning Man. Too windy there for the original and its sails.
Yeah, because hanging out in a parking lot
sounds awesome.
I was kind of afraid that this is how things would turn out but honestly--it's the visual experience of seeing these things on a beach that people wanted, not hanging out in front of a Best Buy.
Totally impartial eyewitness account:
The beests were smaller than expected, but not the size of a smartcar! Once they got going their sails made them look a little bit bigger. They were about 7 feet high. You could see the sails above the heads of the crowd; that makes them at least 7 feet, unless the crowd was my grandmother and her sisters, which would have made the Smartcar comparison accurate. The inventor made several different species..er...models of Strandbeest; one article i'd read said the largest one was 12 feet. Obviously, these were probably the two smallest ones.
The crowd control was nonexistent, for certain. But this wasn't the Walmart crowd at Midnight after Thanksgiving. There was no Strandbeest stampede! Just a bunch of friendly, curious hippies mostly. Not a typical beach crowd, not a typical crowd at all. Everybody was mellow, even if they got too close and didn't hear the 16 year old shy lifeguard ask them to move back. Perhaps they'll have better crowd control at City Hall (read: cops being paid overtime?).
I *did* get a look at the beests in action. Walked around to the far side of them; folks on that side were actually letting others in front to take pics and take turns viewing. I thought I was back in the 1960s with all the friendly hippies doing societally cool stuff like being unselfish and taking turns. Made me want to wear a tie-dye shirt as soon as I got home.
My experience was slightly different from that of "Ginger." There was definitely bumper to bumper traffic, but that is usually the case on Saturday mornings at Crane's during the summer. After hearing stories of people getting turned away at Crane's on weekends for the parking lot being full (when there is NO special event, mind you) I decided to leave early and arrived at the main entry road at about 8:45. Yes it was bumper to bumper and as I sat in the crawling line I was mentally prepared to be turned away, but they indeed had plenty of parking. It was NOT a three mile trek. They have different lots they were using but if Ginger walked for three miles than I don't know where she/he ended up parking. My walk was less than 100 yards. I guess I was lucky. If Ginger might have toughed it out for more than "10 minutes," he/she would have seen the beests move completely on their own. Yes they sometimes needed a 'head start' with a little push from an attendant and they only moved in one direction (perpendicular to the water, away from the shore). Would have been neat to have different wind conditions allowing them to walk along the waterline, but that wasn't to be.
This beach is a Trustees of the Reservation property with limited car capacity. I went in thinking I might get turned away altogether, or that the crowds might be prohibitive, or that the event would be canceled altogether (thread of thunderstorms). I figured at the very least I'd have a morning at the beach. But I was pleasantly surprised to be able to see, along with a big crowd of others, the Strandbeests in action. I look forward to seeing the museum exhibit.
a three mile walk
By the time we got there, they had closed the road at the turn off of 133. According to Google maps, we still had 3 miles to drive from that intersection. A lot of people were parking on the side of the road there and walking in, so yes some people had a three mile walk from where they parked. We passed.
I see...
Thanks for explaining that.
I agree--in fact the line was that long when I arrived. The traffic was backed up to that point and I too checked Google maps and it did say 3 miles; I remember this now. I was just early enough and lucky enough to get into the main lot.
On my way out I did see lots of cars along the road, and people walking to the event (it was after 11:00 by then). I also would have passed if I would have had to walk that far.
Leaving
It appeared a significant majority of the cars in the lot were there just for the Strandbeests. There was a huge line waiting to get out at 12:30. Drivers said they hadn't move in an hour and a half. That isn't normal for a typical summer Saturday at Crane's.
I was referring to the line going in,
when I implied normal Saturday traffic, but you knew that.
Yeah, usually people leave the beach later in the day, and it's no stretch to say that a majority of people were there to see the event. I know I was.
I left shortly after 11:00 AM and while the line was significant to leave (but not that long yet!) there was also still a huge backup of people arriving at that time.
Three Mile Trekker here!
Took my sons, 11yo and 5yo.
Police shut down all roads leading to beach at 9:30, we rode around until 10:30 then parked on the highway to begin the 3 mile hike.
Put the 5 yo on my shoulders and we began the hike, halfway in the police reopened the roads (wtf!) and we still had a mile to go.
Made it by noon, only to see the baby beests on someones cellphone.
Youngest was not impressed, at all.
Russell Orchard saved the day in the end.
Cold Cider and fresh doughnuts for the win!
A tragic waste of a barrier beach
Shame on The Trustee's and PEM and anyone else involved in the false advertising over this ridiculous "art form". Shown in teaser ads, the beest's looked up to 40 feet tall.
What happened instead was Ipswich, Hamilton, Essex residents all being horribly inconvenienced by traffic. Ipswich residents could not get to the beach to even use their own town owned parking lot.
All the while the cash registers were ringing up $25 a car. I hope and pray we all band together and not allow the trustees to further ruin our fragile Crane Beach like this.