Magna Mysteria by Mercurial Wrestler was the major show of this year’s Mayfest. There was a magician, weird sisters, and a number of rendezvous across Bristol including in a gypsy caravan on King Street and the crypt of St John the Baptist Church on Broad Street. Each audience member was also a participant, with a tarot card programmed with its own pervasive media magic meaning that everyone’s experience of the events was different.

Everything culminated in the Big Top @ Creative Common for something which was billed as “the most spectacular showdown Bristol has ever seen”, but ended up as a disappointing damp squib, with the performers failing to be heard and an overriding sense of confusion and disappointment rather than excitement.

Below is a new video of Magna Mysteria filmed and edited by Gemma Burditt and Naomi Smyth, which goes some way to explaining what was going on but also adds to the feeling that the whole thing, and especially the conclusion, should have been a whole lot better.