A giant swing has been erected in the CBD, encouraging adults to play more this mental health month.

The nine-metre-tall swing was installed in Victoria Square yesterday and is guaranteed to attract passersby, says Ian Pidd.

“I don’t know how many thousands of people are up in these office blocks around us here, they will be watching us all day, and they will not be able to help themselves,” Ian tells CityMag as the crew assembles the structure behind us.

“We’re here long enough, and we know that they will come because that’s what happens, that’s what happened certainly in the middle of Melbourne, people would come and go, ‘someone from work came on it yesterday, and now we’re all here’.”

The swing takes about six hours to assemble with a crew of seven people. After its Adelaide run it will be packed back down into a shipping container to spark joy in another city.

With the help of a crane driver, a rigger and a team doing the heavy lifting, what started as a sketch Ian scribbled is now Australia’s only portable public play installation of this kind.

“We know that shopping and working does not make us happy, or at least not in a way that lasts very long,” Ian says.

“Playing makes us very happy, and playing as adults is something that we that we sort of do less and less.

“This is about making people late for work, taking an extended lunchtime, getting out of their workplaces for a coffee break and coming and having a play.”

SWING was brought to town by the Adelaide City Council to activate the CBD. Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith officially opened the swing for play this morning to celebrate World Mental Health Day, October 10.

Lomax-Smith says she is looking forward to seeing city workers and visitors gather in Victoria Square to either have a swing or watch others take part.

“I’m told the installation is as much fun to watch as it is to swing on,” she says.

“We’re hoping everyone will take time out from their busy lives to come along and have a go.”

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Ian says the experience of swinging on it is “absolutely transporting”.

“Because it’s so big, it makes you feel like a kid, like it feels very big over you, and then it’s much higher,” he says.

“It’s a much bigger thing when you’re on it than it looks before you’re on it so it’s a tiny bit scary, and that’s good.

“It’s safe scary, but it’s scary and then it’s just a magnificent sensation of physical abandon.”

The wheelchair-accessible swing

It’s also wheelchair accessible with the seat of the swing simply swapped out for a ramp-accessible platform.

“If someone comes by and we’re not insanely busy, we can change it over in about 10 minutes, and we’ll get people up here, and we’ve had a lot of people on and that’s fantastic,” Ian says.

Watch: SWING is wheelchair-friendly.

Ian created the swing and will take it around Australia to encourage play in public spaces, noting the knock-on effects playing has on our quality of life.

“People who are happy and have and feel good about their lives are more productive units,” he says.

“I think it’s also really nice for folks going past on the tram, or in their cars, to just see people playing, like that actually makes us feel good too.

“I mean, we do feel good when we see people who are happy and playing, particularly in unexpected places.”

Ian Pidd is the mind behind SWING, the free installation that releases your inner child.

The Victoria-based swing has already featured at the State Library Victoria, a railway station in Fitzroy and an art centre in Newcastle, with Launceston on the itinerary.

Ian says Victoria Square is a great spot to set up but he has grander plans.

“My ideal is to close a major road and put it up, that’s what I live for,” he says.

“A highway would be even better, that’d be my favourite; just grind the whole joint to a halt and we’re all just going to play together up and down. This is beautiful.”

The swing will be at Victoria Square until October 24 and is free for anyone to try, so long as you’re aged nine and above and clear the minimum height of 120 centimetres.

“Little kids are actually a bit scared of it, so they don’t mind too much when they’re told they can’t go on,” Ian says.

“It is very much for adults but nine and 10-year-olds love it and teenagers love it, but the people who love it the most are actually people over about 40, they’re the people who really, just really dig it, but everyone loves it.”

SWING is open to the public from 11:30am Thursday, October 10 and will put the fun in Fridays with live music and food trucks.

Sessions for wheelchair users are held on Saturday, October 12 and Wednesday, October 16 between 4pm and 7pm.