The Meadows: Watch as army of volunteers cleans up the area for a powerful, artistic statement

The video was created by film maker Dode Allen

Picture credit: Dode Allen

A video has been released showing the cleanup of The Meadows after another day of sunshine and crowds.

This cleanup with a difference laid the bags of rubbish out to form the number of people who have died from coronavirus in Scotland.

On Friday morning, the number of deaths in Scotland of people who have tested positive with coronavirus was 2,482.

The video, narrated by Alison Grieve, said that she and her husband, local artist, Denny Hunter came up with the idea for the artistic statement after seeing how busy The Meadows have been over the past few sunny days, adding: “With having a lot of friends that have sacrificed a lot during lockdown... it was just upsetting to see how many

people just completely disregard all of that hard work.

“The behaviour of us as individuals can really transform our local communities.”

Denny Hunter told the Edinburgh Evening News: “Yesterday I was walking back home through the meadows after doing my parents shopping.

“They’re isolating because they are in a high risk group.

“I was stunned by the amount of people in the meadows and thought that there would be a proportional amount of litter left after they had been dispersed.

“As an artist I’m always thinking of ways to use materials and thought that it would be good to do a text work with the waste.

“I got home and told my wife Alison Grieve about the idea and she said “why don’t we make the text the number of dead due to COVID-19” and that was that so I put an invite out on The Meadow Share and Coronavirus support Group Edinburgh and there was a lot of support.

“We didn’t think anyone would turn out at 5 in the morning on a day that was supposed to rain but low and behold 10 people turned up along with Dode Allen the Film maker and a bunch of press photographers.

“It was lovely to be part of a group that changed something so ignorant and wasteful into something positive but also very stark.”

The video, made by Edinburgh videographer Dode Allen, has been shared across social media, with Edinburgh author Ian Rankin posting: “OMG! Do watch this! I picked the wrong morning to sleep in! Amazing!”

Thursday saw Scotland enjoy its hottest day of the year, with the Capital seeing highs of 27C, which drew crowds to The Meadows for the second day in a row.

Pictures of crowds ignoring physical distancing, and videos of mass brawls emerged drawing widespread condemnation.

On Thursday morning, Edinburgh City Council leader Adam McVey said: “Waste teams do a brilliant job & work really hard to keep our City clean.

“This isn’t about bin emptying, this crap was deliberately left by people in the middle of the park who thought it was someone else’s responsibility to clear up after them.

“It’s isn’t.”

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