Creating the Insect Girls Character Trail at WHOOP Festival
Updated: Jul 3
By Gabi Almeida, Founder of Mini Gabi World
Photography: Rachel Branson
On 16 and 17 May 2026, something unexpected happened at WHOOP Festival.
Visitors weren't saying, "Look, there's a bee."
They were saying:
"There's Bamba!"
"We've found Ruby!"
"Where's Dotty?"
They weren't describing insects.
They were looking for characters.
That's the moment I keep coming back to.
It reminded me why I created the Insect Girls in the first place.
Families exploring the Insect Girls Character Trail at WHOOP Heritage Festival.
Photography: Rachel Branson
What is Insect Land?
Mini Gabi World is a universe made up of different districts, each with its own characters, stories and personality.
The Insect Girls live in a district called Insect Land.
In this story, they leave Insect Land and travel to the Hoo Peninsula to explore the local landscape and discover the wildlife that lives there.
It's home to five original characters: Bamba the Bee, Ruby the Red Dragonfly, Dotty the Ladybird, Cricketa the Cricket and Arana the Spider.
Each character has their own personality, backstory and place within the wider Mini Gabi World universe.
The Insect Gilrs mission is to encourage curiosity, inviting visitors to slow down, look a little closer and discover the world around them.
Concept artwork for Insect Land and the Insect Girls Character Trail.
Concept artwork: Gabi Almeida
Creating the Character Trail
For the WHOOP Heritage Festival, I wanted to create more than an exhibition.
I wanted visitors to explore the festival through story.
Three life-sized character sculptures — Bamba, Ruby and Dotty — were placed around the site for people to discover.
Each character introduced herself through a short story and a QR code linking to an animation.
Nearby, the Mini Gabi World studio invited visitors to colour, draw and add their own artwork to a growing community wall.
Together, the sculptures, illustrations and animations became one connected experience.
Scenes from the Insect Girls Character Trail at WHOOP Heritage Festival.
Photography (Images 1-3): Rachel Branson
Photography (Image 4): Gabi Almeida
The Art Garden
Alongside the Character Trail, visitors were invited to colour, draw and create their own Insect Girls artwork in the Mini Gabi World studio.
Their creations were then added to The Art Garden — a large collaborative panel that grew throughout the two-day festival, just as a real garden grows over time.
Each new drawing, colouring sheet and character became another part of the garden. Families returned to see how it had changed, children searched for their own artwork amongst everyone else's, and the display gradually became a visual record of the festival itself.
By the end of WHOOP Heritage Festival, The Art Garden had become a shared artwork created by the community — showing how many different people had become part of the Insect Girls' story.
What happened
Something interesting happened almost immediately.
People stopped describing the sculptures as insects.
They started talking about them as characters.
Families searched for each one together.
Young children remembered their names.
Teenagers scanned the animations.
Parents read the character stories aloud.
Grandparents joined the search.
The trail became something families experienced together rather than simply walked through.
One child created a comic using Bamba, Ruby and Dotty as the main characters.
Another asked whether Mini Gabi had been selfish for wanting a world of her own before anyone else arrived.
Parents later sent photographs of colouring sheets being finished at home.
The trail had ended, but the stories hadn't.
Young visitors meeting Ruby for the first time during the Insect Girls Character Trail.
Photography: Festival Participant
More than a treasure hunt
A Character Trail isn't really a treasure hunt.
It's a way of turning a place into part of the story.
Instead of following signs, visitors follow characters.
Instead of simply walking around a venue, they discover personalities, stories and small moments together.
The same approach could work in a festival, museum, heritage site, park, woodland or public garden.
Every location becomes a different chapter.
Artist Gabi Almeida with the Insect Girls Character Trail.
Photography: Rachel Branson
Why it matters
The Insect Girls are one district within the wider Mini Gabi World universe, where each district explores a different theme through original characters and immersive experiences.
Before WHOOP Heritage Festival, the Insect Girls appeared as part of Electric Medway, where they came to life through projection mapping on the façade of Chatham House.
WHOOP marked a new chapter. For the first time, visitors could meet the characters in person, discover them across a landscape and experience the story through a Character Trail.
It's a format that can be adapted for festivals, heritage sites, museums, parks and public spaces, allowing each location to become part of the story while keeping the characters at its heart.
Character sculptures designed to encourage exploration, discovery and connection with place.
Photography: Rachel Branson
Looking ahead
The Insect Girls continue to grow through illustration, animation and storytelling, with an illustrated book currently in development.
Like every district within Mini Gabi World, Insect Land is still evolving.
The Insect Girls appearing as a projection mapping installation during Electric Medway.
Photography: Rachel Branson
About Mini Gabi World
Mini Gabi World creates original Character Trails, immersive storytelling experiences and interactive installations for festivals, museums, heritage sites and public spaces.
Every experience is built around original characters and designed to encourage people to explore, discover and connect with a place in a memorable way.
One thing I'll remember
When I think back to WHOOP Festival, I don't remember people pointing at sculptures.
I remember hearing voices across the field calling:
"We've found Bamba!"
For me, that's what character-led storytelling is all about.
Not simply creating something for people to look at.
Creating characters people remember long after they've gone home.
Watch the Character Trail in action in the WHOOP Heritage Festival highlights film
Film: WHOOP Heritage Festival
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