Big news for Hellfest 2024, the Guardian of Darkness made her appearance on Thursday as promised on the first day of the largest extreme music festival in Europe, which is being held until Sunday in Clisson (Loire-Atlantique). The one who will eventually haunt the site all year round, literally bewitched the thousands of festival-goers who discovered her on the sidelines of the concerts, even if she did not wander among the crowd.
“It’s magical, we feel like she’s watching us,” said a spectator who followed her first steps on Thursday, at nightfall around 10 p.m. Made of lime wood and steel, manipulated using exoskeletons, the creature created by the Nantes company La Machine is 10 meters high and weighs 38 tons. She will be back this Friday evening.
She spits water and fire
For her first appearance, she spit water and fire, blinked her eyes, and moved her tongue and scorpion tail. When it moves, it will adopt an approach between a crab and a spider, in order to “control the passage between our world and that of hell”, explains its creator François Delarozière.
A chimera (which will eventually carry 25 people on its back) at the center of the major tourist project unveiled two years ago by Hellfest. The goal is to develop the festival forecourt to make it a lively site all year round, and not just during the four days of the festival. While funding is still being sought for this project (estimated at 12.5 million euros), the transformation of the former Louxor nightclub into a large brasserie with 500 seats has already begun. It should open in 2025.
You can discover this creature in the video at the top of this article.
