By Chris Marshall

Boom Boom – the dinosaur sculpture by Gregor Kregar – whose installation in Riverside Park blew up into widespread media coverage has celebrated its first birthday.

Those behind the sculpture say there are more (privately funded) works on the way soon to add to the Sculpture Trail.

Reaction to Boom Boom in May last year garnered the sort of coverage one commentator said you would be hard pressed to buy (based on the axiom any publicity is good).

Many were upset that public money was used to pay part of the cost of the sculpture – the first of what is to be a trail of sculptures around the park.

However, Taupō businesses jumped on the Boom Boom bandwagon with humorous memes and dinosaur-themed ads.

Then Mayor David Trewavas was interviewed on national television while Destination Great Lake Taupō’s general manager Patrick Dault called the benefit of the coverage “immeasurable”.

On Friday (May 14) the young sauropod’s first birthday lacked the controversy of the unveiling, with cake and a small gathering of friends.

It seems Taupō Sculpture Trust then deputy chair Christine Robb’s prediction that as a piece of public art the sculpture would attract attention initially before eventually becoming ‘beloved’ has come to pass. Christine is now the trust chairwoman.

Kregar’s seven-metre-high design features a large geodesic rock made of corten steel upon which sits a dinosaur of polished, marine grade stainless steel. The design makes it hard for even the most determined prankster to get a road cone on Boom Boom’s head – though one has succeeded.

At the low-key celebration, Trust secretary Kim Gillies said it had been a very eventful and interesting year for Boom Boom.

“And he still looks great.”

She thanked sponsors who had contributed to the sculpture’s purchase and installation. The trust received $100,000 from the Taupō District Council in 2018 and raised a similar amount itself.

“Generosity has gone such a long way,” Kim says, “and we're looking forward to having more sculptures filling up this beautiful park.”

Boom Boom’s buddies gather for the celebration

The trust’s sculpture trail includes around 20 pieces planned for the park over the next decade, with perhaps one or two more as iconic as Boom Boom, while others will be smaller.

Trustee Harriet Cameron says the aim is to have two new sculptures in place by the end of the year, one in the next two months – Pacific Navigator by Johnny Turner, is a one-off piece, just under two metres tall, made from Kairuru Takaka marble recycled from Wellington’s demolished Maritime House.

After these the trust would be looking at more works, Harriet says, funded through individual donations and from bodies that make grants available to local groups.

As well as financial donors, Cameron says local contractors had provided their services free of charge to install the work.

She sees this as an indication of how locals, whatever their initial reaction to Boom Boom, had got behind the concept of a sculpture trail and could see the value in it - artistically and as a way of enhancing public space.