ICYMI, our nation’s capital is about to throw one of the biggest, most epic parties this country has ever seen. It’s all in honour of Canada’s big 1-5-0, and Ottawa is going to spend the entirety of 2017 in full-on festival mode to celebrate.

You can run, but you can’t hide from these thrills. Seriously, though: There’s a MASSIVE, FIRE-BREATHING CREATURE OF THE NIGHT headed toward the downtown core as part of the festivities.

It’s called La Machine and is easily the most highly anticipated event of the Ottawa 2017 lineup. A North American first, the unique, large-scale ambulatory theatre troupe comes to Canada by way of Nantes, France, and will set Long Ma, a fire-breathing dragon, and Kumo Ni, a spider that sprays anyone in its reach with water, loose on the city for four to five days next summer, with exact dates and locations still to be announced. The event, like much of the Ottawa 2017 programming, will be completely free for people to come and experience first-hand.

And while our giant guests will certainly bring their fair share of oohs and ahs, for artistic director François Delarozière, this is about more than just pure spectacle. “Taking a production of this magnitude to the streets, where a collective imagination, an intangible heritage and a shared identity come into being, is not a trivial matter,” he said. “A nation’s identity and culture stems from these grassroots.” If all goes to plan, La Machine will bring Canadians together and become a new source of national pride.

Which is good news, because we’re going to need someone to hold our hand the first time Long Ma walks by.