EXCITEMENT is building as a west Dorset venue gets ready to host a high profile touring artwork which is likely to attract thousands of visitors.

Gaia is a stunning replica of the Earth measuring seven metres in diameter and featuring detailed NASA imagery of our planet's surface.

Created by visual artist Luke Jerram, the spectacle can be viewed for free at the Symondsbury Estate from tomorrow until Sunday as part of the Inside Out arts festival. The exhibition will be open from 11am until 10pm each day at Park Copse on the estate.

The work which 'explores humanity's place on the planet and the responsibility people have towards each other', is coming to Symondsbury after being displayed at Moors Valley Country Park near Ringwood last weekend when more than 10,000 went to see it over three days.

Bill Gee, co-artistic director of Inside Out Dorset, said: "It was an extraordinary weekend just past at Moors Valley. As expected the audience grew as the days went on, there was around 1,000 the first day, 3,000 the second day and more than 6,000 on the third - so around 11,000 over the three day period.

"People were lining up to see the exhibitions and there seemed a real desire to be able to get together and experience something like this after being locked down for so long. It was a wonderful few days with a very happy crowd of people.

"We do, however, recommend that people come earlier and not leave it until last minute as that's when the queues were at their biggest."

He added: "We've been working with the estate to ensure we can handle significant numbers, there's plenty of parking spaces available and we're making provisions to maximise the audience.

"We're also asking people from Bridport and other local towns to make the effort to walk or to cycle, as it really fits the message we are trying to convey."

Alongside the display of Gaia will be Geophonic, a brand new work described as an 'interactive sound walk experience' by Dorset-based creator and performer Lorna Rees.

Partnering with the Earth, an 'immersive poetic installation' created by Dave Young, Sophie Fretwell and sound designer Jonathon Leitch with a premise of 'if the Earth could speak, what would it say?' will also go ahead for four daily performances.

'The Whistlers' an ancient culture of people created by the Red Herring theatre company, will be interacting with people throughout the day.

A technical issue occurred on the Saturday night of the Moors Valley exhibition, which saw the event lose power due to a fault with the rental equipment for the event. Organisers had to ask people to leave the forest and the issue was solved before the exhibition opened on the following day.

Mr Gee said: "We were very sorry that that happened. It unfortunately happened, but we were able to deal with it and learnt from it and now have provisions so if the main power does have any issues we have secondary power available."

He added: "Gaia is only one of the things, it's a wonderful piece of work but we're also excited about the three commissions we have got to showcase. The artists have been making multiple trips to the site over the past two years. We're really proud to have been supporting these artists as we selected them back in 2019."

Inside Out Dorset, a biennial arts festival, is hosted by Dorchester-based outdoor arts producer Activate. Central to the programme are themes of sustainability, land use and life-cycles - both human and environmental - as well as an on-going commitment to break down barriers and open the free-to-attend festival events to the widest possible audience.