Avona is Born

Today we are on the last of the Avona puppet making workshops! I am writing this from the creative, chaotic comfort of Bristol’s Puppet Place. We are working on the head, face and claws of the Bristol Urban Avon’s first giant river-spirit puppet. She is going to be both gorgeous and fearful.

Her eel-like body is looping out of willow, her eyes are forming from disco balls and her character is jumping out of the hands of this wonderful community.

In our workshops so far, we have had puppeteers, wig-makers, bog-snorkellers, synchro-swimmers, paper-engineers, activists, poets, mothers, deep-sea divers, an ecologist, river-swimmers and a mathematician all drawn to this project of river animism.

Avona has been described as: a nuclear figurehead, a sea-devil, the dragon from Shrek 2, a rainbow fish, a drama queen, the water-spirit God from Spirited Away with cyber dreads and something fierce and beautiful with lobster hands and a lion’s face. Curious? Come and meet her.

Resident puppeteer Saskia Tomlinson is gently facilitating Avona’s creation and will assist (wrangle) the puppet at our river procession at Green Man festival on Sunday the 17^th August from the Cinedrome to the River Usk which flows through the festival grounds. Come along and find us, watch Rave On For The Avon Documentary and join in our watery parade.

The state of UK river’s health is dire, with the Environment Agency stating that serious water pollution has gone up 60% in England in July 2025. There is still so much to be angry and concerned about, but Avona is helping us all to feel like we are channelling that energy into something beautiful.

This Wednesday, the 13^th of August, we will be hosting a felting mask-making workshop with the wonderful Camille Straatman at St Annes House. The masks will be embodying different endangered creatures and entities representing the river’s biodiversity.

After the workshop we will be gathering outside St Anne’s house and learning some river songs as taught by an informal community choir. We will then process along the river to regather at the water's edge at Conham steps at 8pm to baptise the puppet and be serenaded by the splashes of the Almost Synchro swimmers.

We want this ceremony to be original, intimate and village-led. No-one knows how an eel is actually born – do they come out of eggs? The deep? Even less people know how river-spirit puppets are born. Come down to the river to wish her well, honour her being and keep yourself in her good books. No one wants to upset the river’s wrath.

Please keep sharing and donationg to our crowdfunder - there’s so many ways the community can support this project!

A few more dates for your diary are:

• @mrs_meg_avon and Charlotte Sawyer (Director of Rave on for the Avon) will be on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour the morning of Wednesday 20th August.

• An Evening with the River Bride, September 8^th 2025 where Mrs Meg Avon will be sharing poetry and campaign updates as part of The People’s Republic of Stokes Croft’s School of Activism.

• World River’s Day at Bristol Aquarium: Rave on For the Avon Film Screening and after party Saturday 27^th 2025 (two separate tickets to go to both) and then a free, river-themed art exhibition all day at the Aquarium Sunday 28^th September

• Avon Fest November 2nd 2025, at Electric Bear Brewery in Bath. Event details to follow.