Monster Weekend - Newcastle upon Tyne 1-2 September 2007

As flocks of black and white beasts migrated toward Newcastle’s sacred football stadium on Saturday 1 September creatures of a very different kind were the subject of debate in the city's Centre For Life. Monster Weekend was organised to coincide with the current Myths and Monsters exhibition and was a warmly welcomed opportunity for the forteans of the North East - and beyond - to get together and talk strangeness.

Fortean Times stalwart Ian Simmons in his capacity as Director of Science Communications at the Centre For Life had managed to reel in the big fish of forteana and cryptozoology for what one attendee had called, “a greatest hits of Uncon”.



Saturday

Jumping straight into the Dragon’s Den was Richard Freeman of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, giving us a comprehensive account of the history, variations and possible origins of the greatest of monsters – the Dragon.