Man Engine Day & Mine Cart Derby 2016

Man Engine Day and Mine Cart Derby Pop Up Penzance were contracted by Penzance Business Improvement District to bring a day of fun and festivity for the day when The Man Engine (a fabulous enormous, 11metre high puppet celebrating Cornish Mining World Heritage Status), would visit Penzance at 5pm. We put on a soapbox derby down the main street, with over 12 teams, with amazing inventive karts and fabulous costumes, what a treat! Causewayhead was home to a Heritage Hub in a pop up shop, with a mining celebration exhibition, workshops with Geevor Mine and Penzance historians showing the stories of mining in the area. Chapel Street Methodist Chapel hosted a kids Creation Station for families and children to get inventive with cardboard, tin cans and other recycled materials. Working with Tough Dough, we also organised Tinners making workshops, where Tin Folk were made from tin cans and displayed around the shop windows as part of the Town Trail. The Big Dance Company put on a fantastic show at The Greenmarket, there was music and entertainment around the whole town. It was a great day in Penzance, so many lovely people having good fun, many dressed up in the Steampunk/Miners theme of the day, a total community day out and a brilliant showcase for our summer visitors. The Man Engine himself was truly amazing and a wonderful reminder of Cornwall’s part in the history of invention and innovation in the world, and how the tin mining world was hugely influential in the Industrial Revolution. Thanks to Golden Tree Productions for the fabulous Man Engine, Penzance BID for giving us the opportunity to create the event and our funders and sponsors for helping to make it even better. Photos by Luke Brown.