AN arts festival is being held to celebrate a modern monolith sculpture scheme being created in Newquay.

Alama Field Day will be held at the Barrowfields on Sunday, September 7 between 12pm and 4pm, which will include art workshops, live music, talks and a community picnic.

The star of the show will be the unveiling of the first of three monolith sculptures made by artist Robin Sullivan and the community.

The programme will also include Morris dancing from WAD, music by Tea Leaf, a walking drawing workshop with Kitty Hillier, a cyanotype sun print workshop by Trebah gardener James Meredew as well as a clay workshop with Jenna and Danielle from Tor Pottery Works.

Modern monoliths are being installed at Newquay Orchard, Nansledan as well as at the Barrowfields.

The structures recall the ancient Neolithic stones scattered across the Cornish landscape used for millennia as places of contemplation, healing and communal gatherings.

The Bronze Age Barrowfields has been chosen as its the oldest known settlement, Nansledan is the most recent suburb whilst Newquay Orchard is a community hub.

The Newquay Monolith project aims to create new communal points to showcase the town’s heritage, archaeological past, and contemporary communities.

A spokesperson said: “Alma Field Day will be a seasonal celebration of art, music and creativity inspired by the people, landscape and stories of Newquay.

“People can come and take a look, hear about the process and meet some of the people who helped to shape this new point of gathering and celebration for Newquay.

“A symbol of Newquay’s amazing community and the nod to the Bronze Age settlers who first made the place their home.”

The Newquay Monoliths, which has been overseen by Sullivan, who grew up in nearby Looe, and local community arts organisation ALMA Artspace, have been made using over 300 direct casts of the town made by hundreds of local people selecting and creating casts of places that held personal significance to them.

These casts, now embedded in the Monoliths, capture the textures and essence of Newquay. Fragments of place, emotions and memory made permanent and include various geological stones, flora and waste materials found across the town.

The process was a result of a year-long public programme of diverse workshops, talks, and field trips with numerous local organisations, of all ages, abilities and backgrounds, involved in the unique casting process.

By combining casts made by the people of Newquay into these new sculptural structures, Sullivan and The Newquay Monoliths create a new conversation around the idea that: ‘Yours + Mine = Ours’.

This concept takes its inspiration from the spirit of ancient ancestors felt in the Neolithic monoliths and within the site of the Barrowfields, where around 3,500 years ago barrows were built to mark their dead, and how different communities would combine materials from their own lands to create common spaces and memorials.

The goal of the project is to encourage these connections, ensuring the Monoliths are imbued with a collective understanding and appreciation of shared experiences.

The monoliths will create a two-mile walking and biking trail from Newquay’s old town at the Barrowfields, across to Newquay Orchard and then out to the newest part of the town at Nansledan.

The groups and organisations involved in creating the Newquay monoliths include residents, Cornwall Archaeological Unit; Cornwall Council; the Duchy of Cornwall; Experience Newquay; Gather & Grow; Nansledan Community Association; Newquay Orchard staff and volunteers; Newquay Tretherras School; St Petrocs; and Trenance Learning Academy.