Inflatable Stonehenge on its way to Marlborough (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Inflatable Stonehenge on its way to Marlborough

9:48am Thursday 21st June 2012 in News By Nigel Kerton

There will be a rare chance to clamber all over the Stonehenge monument and even bounce off its stones – without hurting yourself or being admonished – because a life sized inflatable replica is coming to Marlborough for the day on June 29.

The huge inflatable monument has been designed and made by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller specially for Glasgow Internat- ional Festival and is now on a nationwide tour of the UK.

Mayor Edwina Fogg told the town council on Monday that Marlborough has been selected as the only town in Wiltshire where the huge bouncy Stonehenge installation will be set up on The Common and in operation from9am to 6pm, free of charge.

She said: “Last Wednesday I took a call from Boris Johnson’s (the Mayor of London’s) office and was told that the Stonehenge inflatable is definitely coming to Marlborough on Friday next week.”

The Mayor of London’s office co-commissioned the inflatable monument – dubbed ‘Sacrilege’ – with the Glas-gow International Festival organisers and it is touring venues around the country until it is finally displayed as an attraction for visitors to the London Olympics.

The inflatable monument – complete with replicas of Stonehenge’s huge standing stones and horizontal lintels – is visiting fewer than 30 places as it heads south for the Olympic village.

“Marlborough has been chosen as an ideal spot,” Coun Fogg told the council.

Present at the meeting was leading Stonehenge archaeologist Mike Pitts, who lives in Marlborough and who Coun Fogg thanked for suggesting the town as one of the Sacrilege venues.

All 16 village and town schools in Marlborough Community area have been invited to attend what Coun Fogg described as “this amazing event”.

The visit by the giant inflatable will be weather dependent, she warned, and would not go ahead in adverse weather.