On Saturday February 10, two five-meter tall Warhammer 40k Tyranid monsters rampaged through the Carnaval de Terra Endins in the tiny town of Torelló near Barcelona, Spain. The enormous carnival float was the work of a local community group, ‘Els Grillats’, whose members overlap with a local wargaming society.
Wargamer owes thanks to Warhammer 40k fan and Torelló resident Alexandre Lavado i Campàs, who shared photos of the enormous Tyranid monsters on social media and provided a local perspective on this awesome community craft project. Thanks also go to Els Grillats for the use of their photographs.
Els Grillats’ name literally means ‘they’re crickets’, lighthearted Catalan slang for being crazy. Campàs explains that they’re “one of the biggest groups in Torelló village and nine-time winners of the Carnival”. 360 of their members participated in the street parade in hand made “parasite” costumes.
Campàs explains the story behind the float: “the float was about a virgin world in the “Grillatia” galaxy, which was about to be invaded by the parasites (the members of the parade)”. The two Tyranids, “Mother” and “Warrior”, are already on the planet, which results in a fight; the invading parasites “end up being enslaved”.
Unsurprisingly, there’s some overlap between the membership of Els Grillats and a local tabletop gaming society, called Helheim Osona, which plays 40k, Kill Team, and other miniature wargames.
These two monsters might be the biggest 40k scratch builds ever made. Campàs explains how community groups make this kind of float: they usually consist of “an iron skeleton, paper, cardboard and polyurethane, and then painted and decorated with lights, speakers and other impressive effects”. The Warrior could even breath smoke.
Local TV station EL 9 TV has this footage from the carnival, showing the El Grillats floats rumbling past, surrounded by their dancing parasites. It looks like one hell of a party.
The Carnaval de Terra Endins (carnival of the inner country) has operated since 1978, and is one of the biggest in Catalonia. It draws 60,000 tourists to tiny Torelló, which normally has a population of just 15,000. There are three events during the weeklong festival: ‘el Pullassu’, “in which people feast around a giant penis and a giant vagina”, ‘Senyoretes i Homenots’, in which men and women cross-dress, and ‘el Rua’, the street parade for carnival floats.
Floats “come from every corner of the Osona region, but mostly from Torelló and the neighbouring villages of Sant Vicenç de Torelló and Sant Pere de Torelló”, Campàs explains.
We’ve seen some big Warhammer 40k projects before, like this 28mm scale Imperator Titan, but never anything as massive as Els Grillats’ parade float! We’d love to see these ‘Nids face off against the Space Marine Rhino permanently on station outside Warhammer World in the UK.
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