Thousands of people gathered in Manchester city centre today, Sunday 26 July, to celebrate Manchester Day, one of the city’s best-loved annual events, which this year featured a distinctive Catalan twist.
The highlight of the celebrations was the spectacular Manchester Day Parade, featuring more than 500 participants from 25 community groups, alongside an afternoon of free family-friendly activities.
In an exciting first for Manchester Day, this year also saw artists and performers from Barcelona join in the celebrations as part of a unique partnership with the Catalan city.
It follows Manchester’s role as guest city at last year’s La Merce Festival in Barcelona, which saw performers and musicians from Manchester invited to Barcelona to take part in the iconic annual festival.
Today’s stunning Manchester Day parade – a crowd-pleaser from start to finish – has been several months in the making and was brought to life by local community groups from across the city who worked alongside artists in the run-up to the big day, along with artists and performers from Barcelona, to help create a parade filled with music, energy, colour, and Catalan vibes.
Led by Manchester’s very own giant-sized Queen Bee and Worker Bee and joined by Barcelona’s own larger-than-life giants taking their first-ever trip outside of Barcelona, the Gegants de la Ciutat de Barcelona – the oldest and most significant pair of giants in Catalonia, representing Kind Jaume I and Queen Violant d’Hongria – this year’s parade provided plenty of seize-the-moment selfie opportunities for the cheering crowds.
Parade highlights included an amazing Chinese junk boat complete with the Hong Kong skyline above it, an enormous basket filled with the most amazing colourful fungi, a huge bookshelf stuffed with over-sized books, the hungry caterpillar cycling along the parade route, stilt walkers with their heads in the clouds, and a flock of exotic birds on umbrellas, as well as a kingfisher, a beautiful phoenix, and even an eagle on a bike!
Volunteers from Friends of the Earth also brought a collection of oversized animals from endangered species to highlight the dangers facing some of our most beloved creatures including red squirrel, puffin, and a beautiful butterfly.
With dancers from community groups across the city – many wearing traditional costumes – and live music throughout, the parade wound its way through the city as crowds lined the streets, from St Peter’s Square, along Deansgate, Cross Street and Princess Street, before coming to a finish back at St Peter’s Square.
Away from the parade the city’s squares were filled with live music, dancing, theatre shows and pop-up performances – from duelling Shakespeares, unicycling knights and damsels in distress, to serenading singers in a punt that glided through the city streets, giant polar bears, a brimstone dragon, and even an enormous walk-in sperm whale for youngsters to step inside for story-time sessions with fishy tales.
Mancunians took to the streets in their thousands throughout the day to make the most of the Manchester Day festivities and to give a massive Manchester welcome to the artists and performers who had travelled from Barcelona to take part in the day.
Catalan highlights included The Ultimate Player’s Handbook – a fabulous dance performance that saw dancers from Manchester’s own Company Chameleon join forces with dancers from Catalan company Clementine & Lisard to perform a vibrant dance piece created and first performed at La Merce last year.
Performance artist and Catalan superstar Joan Català also paid a visit to Manchester, performing with Pelat in a show that blurred the lines between circus, dance and thrilling theatre.
The crowds also loved the acrobatics, dance and physical theatre of Catalan performers Elelei with their piece Too Much, alongside an immersive travelling pop-up performance theatre piece from Kamchàtka, and Zum-Zum Theatre’s incredible herd of bright pink inflatable hippos.
In a nod to the National Year of Reading, Central Library also opened its doors for the day with a host of book-themed fun and close encounters with storybook characters, as well as the chance to ride the glass elevator with Willie Wonka, and to walk through the wardrobe into Narnia – whilst all the time avoiding Captain Hook and being made to walk the plank.
The day’s festivities were brought to a close with a show-stopping grand finale that saw musicians and performers from Manchester and Barcelona join together in a fabulous finale finish celebrating the two cities, as Manchester musicians including Mr Wilson’s Second Liners, and The Always Drinking Marching Band from Barcelona converged on Albert Square in an incredible battle of the bands, accompanied by the Manchester giant bees and Barcelona’s gegants, and ending in a sensational shower of confetti and coloured smoke over the cheering crowds.
Councillor Pat Karney, Chair of Manchester Day, Manchester City Council, said:
“Hola Manchester! And hola Barcelona! What an amazing Manchester Day we’ve had this year! It’s been a fantastic day from start to finish with such a brilliant atmosphere right across the city.
“I want to say an enormous thank you to our friends from Barcelona for bringing the most amazing Catalan vibes to Manchester and joining in our celebrations with such spirit and energy.
“And thank you also to all the artists and performers from Manchester and from Barcelona for sharing their talents with us and helping make it such a special day for all the thousands of people who came along and got involved.
“Manchester Day has always been our city’s favourite day of the year, but this year was without doubt every more special – the best Manchester Day yet!”
The city council worked with outdoor arts specialists Walk the Plank, Global Grooves and others on the programme for the day.
The involvement of Catalan performers in this year’s Manchester Day has been supported by Barcelona City Council and the Institut Llull in Barcelona, which is the public institution responsible for promoting Catalan language and culture internationally.
Xavier Marcé, Councillor for Culture and Creative Industries of Barcelona City Council, said:
“Barcelona has been delighted to participate in Manchester Day and to strengthen the cultural ties that connect our two cities. Through this collaboration, we celebrate creativity, diversity and the capacity of culture to bring people together across borders. We’ve been proud to share a glimpse of Barcelona’s cultural spirit with the people of Manchester and to be part of this vibrant collective celebration.”
Anna Guitart, Director, Institut Ramon Llull, Barcelona, said:
“This collaboration underscores the role of culture as a tool for dialogue and international connection.
“Manchester Day is an exceptional platform to showcase the quality, diversity and innovative capacity of Catalan street arts, and to generate new opportunities for artistic and professional cooperation.”
For more information about Manchester Day visit manchester.gov.uk/manchesterday
