Unless you’ve had your head in the sand over the past few days, you’ll have noticed dozens of unicorns have appeared across Bristol, mainly in the city centre.
With all different colours and patterns, the sculptures have been installed as part of UnicornFest to raise money for Leukaemia Care charity, and there are more than 50 in the city.
And so with the sun out, we decided to put cap and sunglasses on and see how many we can search out (using the UnicornFest app) in under three hours, starting in St Werburghs.
First stop was IKEA where I found the first unicorn of the day - Lunacorn - and a few unicorn foals painted by schools outside the entrance. I scanned the unicorn’s QR code on the Unicornfest which unlocked a cute animation of a vinyl unicorn doll in a box with Lunacorn’s name.
Next stop was inside the store where I came across the Attic Treasure unicorn before continuing my journey to the Memorial Stadium before completing a few stops on Gloucester Road and surrounding streets.
I then went through the city centre where a large cluster of unicorns live, before heading to Brandon Hill, Anchor Road, Redcliffe Way, Temple Meads and the Trinity Centre.
I met a lot of people from different age ranges, including families with grandparents, children and their parents and solo adventurers searching for unicorns.
Here are the 26 unicorns I discovered along the trail:
1. Lunacorn by Amy Magee
Lunacorn can be found in section C of IKEA's car park, next to a few unicorn foals painted by schools in Bristol. Amy Magee is an internationally renowned artist who won the Contemporary Artist of the Year, 2022 SME Awards and has been featured by British VOGUE and GQ.
2. Attic Treasure by Natalie Tallon
I found Attic Treasure after exploring the IKEA store for over 30 minutes and getting hints from the staff. Natasha Tallon is a valued member of IKEA Bristol's in-store design team, and she used the well-known Swedish emblem - the Dala Horse- as inspiration for her unicorn.
3. Irene by Silent Hobo
Found at Memorial Stadium with some help from a Rovers player. Irene is sponsored by the Terrace/Utilita/Popular Insulation and is “wearing” a home kit to cheer on her team.
4. Nevil by Jayde Perkin
Nevil is sponsored by Gloucestershire Cricket Club and can be found by the club. Nevil represents "long balmy summer evenings of drinking pints and watching and a bunch of legends playing cricket" and celebrates "community, family, friendship and all round good vibes."