How fantastic beasts are hatched at a workshop in Hull

In a workshop on an assuming housing estate are hatched some of the most weird and wonderful creatures you are ever likely to see.

These make-believe beasts include a giant snowball, a walking Humber Monster and a pedal-powered flying machine.

In recent decades, creations such as these have become familiar fixtures at street festivals and events around the country and, as Britain breaks up for the school summer holidays, they will be ready again to delight children and adults alike.

So how are they made?

The home of Apus Productions is almost as quirky as the fantastic creations they design, as the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has been discovering. It is housed in a former school off Hessle Road in Hull.

Here, the storerooms are full of scrap materials – rolls of foam rubber, big sticks of bamboo and giant hula-hoop shapes – that will one day find a use as part of a creature or costume.

"We try to use found objects as much as possible" says Liz Dees, the woman behind the business.

She lifts up an angel fish with eyes made from plastic play cones. Drawings on the wall set out the circuit boards hidden inside a creature, which allow it to light up and make music.

The creations have been intricately measured so a person can wear and operate them – but also so they can get out of the workshop doors.

According to Dees, the Humber Monster – a huge angler fish with sharp teeth – has to be carefully manoeuvred out of the door because it was made just that little bit too wide.

Dees set up the company in 2007.

Their creations, such as larger-than-life albino peacocks and a pedal-powered flying machine piloted by steam punks, are often seen at Hull events such as the Freedom Festival.

But these beasts are also in demand around the world.

On one occasion in 2024, a pair of giant birds with stunning fanned tails appeared at a lavish wedding in India.

Other performances have been staged in Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait, Romania and Ireland.

Dees studied at art school and the London School of Fashion.

She was about to take up a post teaching textiles technology in a school, when an old contact got in touch to ask if she would like to set up a street theatre company.

She chose the street theatre, but in 2008 she was then diagnosed with MS.

"There was no way I was getting on a pair of stilts", she adds. "So I began to manage a team of performers and I've been running it ever since."

After these joyful beasts have been built with careful engineering skill and electric wizardry, the performers love to get inside them, Dees says.

They also enjoy seeing the gasps and smiles of wonder when spectators encounter the beasts on the streets.

"We're for everyone, adults as well as children", she adds. "It goes without saying really, the health and wellbeing benefits of experiencing arts and culture.

"People might be just randomly visiting the town centre and they come across one of our acts.

"That's the magic – that we are able to entertain people who are not really expecting it.

"The performers are so dedicated", she adds. "They're planting seeds in children's eyes that the world can be fun."

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