10 highlights from Supercrawl 2012, night two

There was music, fire and a prince on James Street North Saturday for the second night of Supercrawl 2012.

Here are ten highlights from a wild day in downtown Hamilton.

Circus Orange

Circus Orange put on a huge spectacle at the corner of Wilson and James to a packed crowd Saturday evening.

Three aerial artists swung and dangled 50 feet above an enraptured audience and kept everyone guessing as to what was coming next.

Ohand their aerial apparatus spits fire.

Creepy, creepy art

Sure, art can be uplifting and whimsical. It can also be exceedingly creepy.

Case in point was the duck head mannequin, standing nonchalantly on the sidewalk on James Street.

It looked like any other mannequin. Except it had ducklings for a face.

"Don't look directly at it!" shrieked one woman as she walked by. "This thing is just too weird."

Not far off from our duck-faced friend lay another creepy piece of work: Frank.

Frank sat innocently on an easy chair on the street as passerby's watched with trepidation.

Looking like something out of Resident Evil,he got about as much love as his duck-faced companion.

Graffiti murals in the CBC Hamilton/Tivoli Theatre lot

Seven people spent about 12 hours meticulously crafting a giant mural in the lot behind the CBC Hamilton building.

"You have to be really patient. It takes a long bloody time," said Johnny Cleand, one of the artists.

The mural, based on roses, wasn't even sketched out or planned.

"I just flew by the seat of my pants," Cleand said.

The Gertrudes

Imagine if alt-country was played in outer space. That's pretty close to the sound the Gertrudes pull off.

The massive nine-piece band from Kingston includes two drummers, guitar, bass, banjoand even a theremin.

Their sound is booth rootsy yet spacy, which really is a feat in itself.

Check them out atthegertrudes.com.

Bryce Huffman's cars

Why not draw all over a Prius?

Lots of people did for Bryce Huffman's Pachydermic Prius exhibit Saturday.

Messages were scrawled across two cars by hordes of people.

"Someone wrote the entire number of Pi," said one onlooker, before realizing she might not be totally correct.

A royal visit

This one was unexpected. Prince Edward, Queen Elizabeth's youngest son, visited the armoury on James Street North Saturday afternoon in the middle of Supercrawl.

The armoury was built in 1908 and has been classified as a Canadian heritage building. It currently serves as the headquarters for the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

Prince Edward was in Hamilton to take part in the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry.

He was the reviewing officer for a rare military Trooping of the Colour ceremony at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum as well.

The food

Food trucks lined James Street all day and into the night, and were slammed with hungry customers almost constantly.

Graeme Smith, the owner of Gorilla Cheese, estimated he had slung about 1,000 sandwiches out of his window Saturday.

"We went and went until the last piece of bread went out the window," he said.

Fabric art

Nestled away among the hordes of vendors lining James Street was Heather Verplanke Art.

Her pieces are interestinginstead of painting with oils or drawing with charcoal, she creates "paintings" with layers of fabricand buttons.

Check out her stuffhere.

Device for the Emancipation of Landscape

While it was largely dormant on Friday, Matt Walker's "Device for the Emancipation of Landscape" was chirping away on James North the whole day Saturday.

Walker created a circular dome with a concrete base, and pumped the sounds of nature through a speaker in the back. These "atmospheric field recordings" made at Beverly Swamp stood in stark contrast to the usual bustle of the downtown.

K'naan

K'naan lived up to his headliner status Saturday, drawing a huge crowd next to the Lister Block.

During "Hurt Me Tomorrow," he had the band stop so he could tell the audience how much he appreciated their energy.

"It's always such a trip to hear a crowd sing back something you wrote," he saidbefore launching right back in to the song again.

So did you enjoy your Supercrawl, Hamilton? Head over toour Facebook pageto see all the photos we snapped over the last two days.