Waiting around gave us plenty of time to think about the event and how we felt about it. Most reviews have been highly favourable but often it seemed rather confused and chaotic as the online review at Click Liverpool points out. The same review quotes a cost of £300,000 but I suspect that if all the costs including policing, rerouting buses and all the other extras are included the true price would be an awful lot more. Most of the crowd seemed to be made up of local families and I don't think the argument that such events bring new money into the centre is a very strong one.
The event was staged by Royal De Luxe, a French theatre company, and there was very little local involvement.
Still, I got the impression that most of Liverpool was very proud of the event and thoroughly enjoyed it though I could not help having reservations about spending so much public money on a huge prestige event when services to some of the poorest people in city are being cut in the name of austerity. If the giants had been built in Liverpool or many more local artists had been involved I might have felt differently, but standing there among the crowd watching the giants the phrase 'bread and circuses' drifted into my mind.
I'm still not quite sure what is being offered.
I also have my own plans to build a Giant and see if I can talk a UK city into giving me £300,000. It will be a giant lizard far more spectacular than the Liverpool giants, and it will smash its way through the city breathing fire and leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. I have made a small model of my planned event and include a photograph below. It would be a real day out to remember!