A police investigation is underway after the GlasGLOW site was targeted by vandals in the early hours of Saturday.
Graffiti was scrawled across key pieces of the light show in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens, regarded as the biggest Halloween event in the UK.
Organisers itison said the incident occurred "following weeks of trolling by eco extremists”, who claimed they were “abusing wildlife and destroying the gardens by hosting GlasGLOW in the Botanics”. They have strongly refuted the claims.
GlasGLOW event founder and itison CEO, Oli Norman, released a statement condemning the vandalism.
It read: “Alongside the entire team I’m saddened and disgusted by the mindless vandalism that took place at GlasGLOW early this morning.
“This behaviour has nothing to do with the climate emergency or protecting wildlife, and everything to do with a small minority of individuals trying to tell us what we can and can’t do in our public spaces.
“We have been accused of ‘green washing’ for using biofuels and donating tens of thousands to local charities and labelled ‘corporate greedy’ for employing over 270 local people to deliver GlasGLOW.
“We are a local company putting on an event bringing families and friends together to spread light and joy in the dark months. These trolls should be ashamed of themselves – not only are they disrupting a much-loved event, but they have undermined the cause of environmental groups that genuinely want to drive change.”
Police are appealing for anyone with information that may assist their investigation to come forward.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "On Saturday, October 29, police received a report of a vandalism that took place earlier that morning at an event in Botanic Gardens, Glasgow. Police enquiries are ongoing into this report and anyone with information that may assist the enquiry should contact 101 with reference 1472 of 29 October."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel