Beach Hut 2

Despite torrential rain most of the day and while we were setting up, the weather turned calm and fine for the hour alotted for our opening tonight and we had a a lovely calm evening under the full moon. This fitted with the theme which was Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silent, a beautiful, quiet carol from the 4th century about Christ descending to earth surrounded by the host of heavenly angels.

To symbolise this we had a 1m high block of crystal clear ice embedded with a nativity scene showing Jesus descending towards the stable while Mary and Joseph waited in expectation. The angels were symbolised by pairs of feather wings floating above the scene, accompanying Jesus as he floated down. The whole tableau was lit with LEDs and lasers giving a gorgeous ethereal light. There's something about the way figures can be suspended in ice like this that is very magical and the carol has a mystical air to it that matched the mood of the sculpture very well.

When the event was over we were able to take the block of ice to a local school and install it in their playground so that the children can see how long the ice lasts in these winter conditions. This was Martin Poole's hut and those who know him will recognise themes from the last year as we've dabbled with lasers and ice sculptures at various other events in the BEYOND calendar, not least being the ton and a half ice sculpture we created for Greenbelt.

Numbers were good again tonight with plenty of people keen to get their stamps towards winning the Hotel du Vin prize. Tomorrow we're down by Hove Lawns at hut 128.