Edge web vote gets off to flying start

The Eden Project drummed up support for the Edge this morning as a giant icicle and some spectacular aerial acrobatics launched the project’s bid for £50 million.

At 9am when internet voting opened in the Big Lottery Fund’s: the People’s £50 Million Contest (www.thepeoples50million.org.uk/vote), the icicle was unveiled high up in Eden’s Rainforest Biome - the biggest greenhouse in the world.

The countdown was led by drummers from the Big Green Beat group with Eden staff joining with home-made percussion instruments.

Pictured are aerial acrobats Rachel Furlong (left) and Joanna Palmer (right) from Tumbellina Productions who descended on silks to mark the unveiling.

The Edge represents the next great phase at Eden, It will be a visionary new building meeting the challenges of climate change. Its scale and ambition will make it an international icon of sustainability. The building will be a model of cutting-edge architecture and technology, harvesting water and energy from the sun, wind, and rain to show how we all might live in the future.

It will be a testament to one-planet living, built to the lowest possible carbon footprint and designed to last. Inside there will be amazing desert, oasis and water gardens on a scale never attempted undercover.

The Edge is one of four projects competing in the Big Lottery Fund’s: the People’s £50 Million Contest. The winning project will be decided by a public vote. Internet voting is now open and phone voting is during December 7-10.

On December 3, a series of TV programmes about each of the projects is due to start with the Edge being championed by survival expert Ray Mears.