800th: Liverpool plans a giant birthday

Aug 28 2007 by Liza Williams, Liverpool Daily Post

Liverpool is 800 today. Liza Williams reports on some of the celebrations

TODAY is Liverpool’s 800th birthday and the city centre is all set for a huge pageant involving a giant, a drumming world record and the biggest firework display ever seen in the city, to name just a few highlights.

Events are set up for the whole day and this is our comprehensive guide to the festivities celebrating the 800 years since King John signed the city’s Royal Charter.

10am – the festivities start with the Liverpool 800 civic service at Liverpool Parish Church (Our Lady and St Nicholas). This is an invitation-only event expected to end around 45 minutes later.

11am – the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Liverpool with members of Liverpool’s oldest family, the Georges, will lead dignitaries on a civic procession from St Nicholas Church through The Strand, James Street and Castle Street ending outside the Town Hall at 11.30am

11.30am – the birthday pageant starts outside St George’s Hall, led by the Liverpool Giant, two large Liverpool-themed puppets, four large Liverpool-themed structures and featuring more than 800 performers and community representatives. Its route includes the Churchill flyover, Dale Street and Castle Street

12.07pm – Glitter cannons will fire around the Liverpool Giant and on Castle Street. The pageant then continues along Lord Street, Whitechapel, St Johns Lane and St George’s Hall.

The pageant will conclude with a street art performance designed by The Inishowen Carnival Group. Around 250 performers will adopt the unique costume designs and bicycle structures designed by Mark Hill, the creative director of the Inishowen Carnival Company.

The street theatre performance will engage 40 visiting professional performers from Ireland and 210 performers from performance groups across the region including the Wirral Youth Theatre, the National Museums Liverpool Youth Theatre, Liverpool Community College, Merseyside Cycle Campaign, Active Drama, Tranmere Rovers FC Study Centre, the Ghanaian youth group, Liverpool Network Theatre, and Out the Bag Productions.

Live music from The Liverpool Lantern Band, The Liverpool Batala, Beatlife, The Liverpool Brass Ensemble, The Wirral Pipe band and River Niga will accompany the theatre.

1pm – The Pageant ends at St George’s Hall. A civic lunch will take place at the Town Hall for visiting dignitaries, including international guests from Liverpool’s twin towns and those of other Merseyside boroughs

1pm to 4.30pm – Entertainment will take place in four districts. In Derby Square there will be performers from the Liverpool Culture Company’s Streetwaves young music competition. Williamson Square will feature the Cavern 50th anniversary stage with at 12.30pm, flying in from Buenos Aires Nube 9 perform the sound of George Harrison. At 1.30pm arriving from Gothenburg, Rocks Off pay homage to the Rolling Stones while at 2.30pm The Overtures recreate the best of days gone by with high energy 60s sounds.

Old Hall Street will feature a commercial district fun day. Local businesses will take part in a school sports day from noon-2pm with the egg and spoon race, three-legged race, throw the welly, space hopper race, and sack race.

Street theatre courtesy of Urban Strawberry Lunch will entertain the crowds while visitors can take a journey through the pages of Liverpool's history told through the covers of the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo in the foyer of our building. A food and drink market featuring the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) will be in place all day. Five of the city’s top restaurants – Room, the Racquet Club, Simply Heathcotes, 60 Hope Street and Felini at the Radisson – have made two birthday cakes each for the city for a Liverpool Daily Post competition. Pieces of one will be judged and sold off to people in the street. The other will be kept intact and raffled off for charity. Prizes will be awarded for best overall cake, best decorated cake and the people's cake –the one that sells the fastest.

Discover the story behind Liverpool's boxing past with memorabilia from the Merseyside Boxing Association on display at the Cross Keys on Earle Street.

Find out more about the history of one of the commercial district's favourite local haunts, the Lion Tavern in Moorfields with photographs and floor plans on view.

For more information on activities in the commercial district and surrounding areas go to: www.liverpoolcdp.com. Exchange Flags will feature medieval themed entertainment throughout the day.

5.30pm – Guests begin arriving for a celebratory dinner at the Town Hall, hosted by Liverpool’s Lord Mayor Paul Clark. Guests include Ken Dodd, Ricky Tomlinson, the winners of Liverpool’s Oldest Family competition, unsung community heroes and representatives of institutions that have received the Freedom of the City.

8pm – 800 drummers attempt to break the world record for biggest-ever syncopated drum performance at St George’s Plateau. Rehearsals start 6.30pm.

8.30pm – guests from Town Hall dinner leave for Pier Head to catch a Mersey Ferry scheduled to leave the Pier Head at 9pm

10pm – Liverpool 800 fireworks start, lasting exactly 20 minutes and seven seconds and

fired from three fixed points in front of the Three Graces at the Pier Head and the roofs of the two cathedrals

11.15pm – Ferry returns to Pier Head. For more information about the day’s events go to http://www.liverpool08.com/Liverpools800th/Liverpool800Day

lizawilliams