What Are Those Giant Eggs In The City Centre?

CHRISTMAS crackers may have been relegated to the reduced aisle, but with chocolate eggs lining the walls of every shop in sight, sickly sweet over indulgence is just around the corner once again.

There are 101 eggs in total, with 100 years of chocolate to be won each day by finding the elusive ‘Humpty Dumpty’ egg, with free Lindt goodies for unsuccessful egg hunters at Exchange Square. 

From Selfridges to Spinningfields, Manchester’s Easter celebrations have come early with an invasion of brightly coloured eggs scattered throughout the city centre and beyond, emblazoned with designs from Spongebob Squarepants to Skeletons.

The eggs are part of Lindt and Action for Children’s Big Egg Hunt - seeking to raise money to support the charity’s 600 services across the UK, helping more than 250,000 children, young people, parents and carers each year. After a six week run in London last year, the egg hunt has made its way up north, calling at Manchester and Glasgow before returning to London.

Each of the eggs features a one-off design; having been sculpted, drawn and modified by a number of contemporary artists, as well as more familiar faces. The ‘eggsibition’ features a number of designs to suit all ages from The Gruffallo creators Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffer and Penguin’s Peter Rabbit to The Beatles.

The trail also features a number of designs for those perhaps not quite as taken with Nickelodeon’s stars. There are designs from a number of current artists including; director Sam Taylor Johnson’s ‘Grimaldi’. As well as the illustrated eggs there are a number of modified eggs including Mark Hayward’s aptly named ‘Egg Tank’ plus Oliver Clegg and Natasha Chamber’s interactive, three dimensional design ‘Yoke 3D’. Each egg features a QR code enabling you to own an egg, with all of the designs currently up for auction at www.thebigegghunt.co.uk.

Last year the big egg hunt set a record, raising over £1m thanks to over a million people participating. There are 101 eggs in total, with 100 years of chocolate to be won each day by finding the elusive ‘Humpty Dumpty’ egg, with free Lindt goodies for unsuccessful egg hunters at Exchange Square.

The hunt features a number of landmarks on the way, starting at Exchange Square and leading down to Cathedral Street, before making its way down to Spinningfields, with eggs hidden along the way. Maps are available from only a £3 donation to Action for Children at the start point. The egg hunt will be in Manchester until 13 March, after which it will then move onto Glasgow.

To donate £3 to Action for Children’s Big Egg Hunt text EGG to 70123 or you can follow the hunt on Twitter at @BigEggHuntUK