Rainbow Dude

A seven-metre tall smiling rainbow sculpture overlooking the Glastonbury Festival site

Rainbow Dude was created by Paul Insect and commissioned by Glastonbury Festival co-organiser, Emily Eavis, for the 2019 festival. Its position overlooking Worthy Farm makes it the perfect spot for festival-goers to meet, relax, hang out and soak up the atmosphere.

With such a high footfall around the sculpture’s location, Rainbow Dude not only needed to reflect the atmosphere of celebration and freedom, it also had to be extremely hard-wearing, with materials, resources and finish treatments all complying to the strictest of health and safety regulations.

The sculpture also had to be disassembled and reassembled for future festivals, becoming an iconic fixture and recognisable feature at Worthy Farm. The design and build process was run in-house over several months, from hand sketches and foam models to CAD analysis, construction drawings, fabrication and finally installation.

The project was an enormous success for everybody involved, with a visit to the happy face of the Rainbow Dude was frequently listed in the top ten things to do in Glastonbury 2019. Combined with special edition prints, artist Paul Insect was elevated to be recognised alongside Banksy as one of the Festival’s takeover visual artists.

• It reflects a feeling and an atmosphere at the heart of one of the world’s most iconic cultural events

• It highlights our design and build expertise, installing sculpture in the public realm

• It allowed us to work with a globally recognised artist and bring his work to life for the public.