City Centre Hosts Biggest Ever Seacycles Parade
Yesterday saw Liverpool City Centre play host to a rather strange collection of sea creatures and nautical figures in celebration of the Seventh Annual Seacycles Parade.
Schools of fish, gangs of pirates, Noah and his ark, an octopus postman, a smack of jellyfish and even King Neptune himself all made appearances as over one hundred people gathered outside the World Museum for the beginning of the procession.
Celebrating Liverpool
The annual Seacycles parade commemorates Liverpool’s namesake tidal pool by walking the route of the city’s original watercourse. Seacycles sets off from William Brown Street where fishermen and merchants originally tied their boats up hundreds of years ago and makes its way to the Albert Dock where the water would have flowed out to the Mersey. The tidal pool still flows in and out of the city twice a day under our feet, meaning people in Liverpool really do walk on water.
Celebrating Sustainability
Now in its seventh year Seacycles is Liverpool’s only people powered parade. With no continuing budget and using recycled materials to create props and costumes the procession is financially and environmentally more sustainable than many of the city’s annual events such as the Lord Mayors Parade.
Celebrating Community
This year’s Seacycles saw community groups from Granby Adult Learning Centre, Clubmoor Children’s Centre, Marybone Community Association and the Bluecoat arts centre all taking part in workshops to create a range of nautical puppets, banners and costumes to celebrate the city’s forgotten history. The parade offers a chance for people of all ages and from all backgrounds to have fun in a creative way. All quarters of the city were represented in the parade allowing people from sometimes marginal communities to engage with the city’s past and present.
‘Pool educates the public in the social and natural history of Liverpool’s namesake tidal pool and its continuing impact upon the social and environmental development of the city.