A seven-metre high giant will be the centrepiece of this year's Macnas Halloween show in Galway.
In a once-off replacement of the annual parade, the company is unveiling a new creation named Con Mór this bank holiday weekend.
He will be residing at the Fisheries Field in Galway City.
At a workshop in Athenry, the finishing touches are being applied to giant of a man.
With a a belly of steel and a face sculpted from local wild willow, he is truly home grown. Con Mór is a feat of engineering and creative endeavour.
He is also known as the Bird King and he will be joined by a variety of winged sculptures created by newly graduated artists nationally.
Paddy Hoyne, an artist and sculptor part of the team creating the giant, said Con Mór is now a character that they have grown very attached to.
He said: "Con is the biggest thing we've done yet and the culmination of Macnas madness during the Covid pandemic of the last couple of years
"We've puppets for years and we end up talking to them. People think we're mad, but you can't spend this much time with the characters and not get to know them a little bit."
Mr Hoyne is confident that there will be a good turnout this weekend, even if weather conditions are not favourable.
"We were locked up for two-and-a-half years and especially with outdoor art like this, people are happy to come out and see it. The weather this weekend mightn't be the best, but I guarantee you the place will be packed with people."
Con Mór will be situated at the Fisheries Field where members of the Macnas Youth Theatre are getting first-hand training in outdoor spectacle arts and they will be performing along with dozens of other acts .
Teenagers will perform with the giant at the Fisheries Field alongside drummers, stilt walkers and brass ensembles.
Noeline Kavanagh, Artistic Director with Macnas, described Con Mór as "amazing".
She added: "It feels absolutely amazing because Con Mór is seven metres high, which actually is the size of a two storey semi-detached house.
"It feels so Macnas and so brilliant after the turbulent and crazy couple of years that the world has had, to have this beautiful big giant kind of lounge on the Macnas field and to invite our audience and our community and all the smallies and all the children coming down to visit this absolutely extraordinary ancestor."
