Manchester Day Parade 2014

This year's big bike entry in the Manchester Day Parade nearly didn't happen. I've been ill for many months now so when, back in January, the call for entries in the parade came out I knew I couldn't do it myself this year. So I went to GMCC's January meeting and asked for someone else to take on the organisation of this year's entry and was met with a stunned silence. Nobody was willing to help or even discuss how they might help.

Thankfully, Love Your Bike stepped in and Pete Abel took on the paperwork and the liaison with Walk the Plank. We came up with the idea of taking the theme Manchester, Going Global and shaped it into an entry along the lines of Manchester, Going Dutch, Going Global. This gave us the idea of putting a new puppet on last year's bike representing a Dutch woman and then bringing together distinctive bikes from around the world. Finally after some discussion with our artist Julian we also agreed that we should get all the people in our group to wear green to give the group some visual cohesion and the idea became Manchester, Going Dutch, Going Global, Going Green.

The new puppet was finished just in time, and in the morning I walked out to find the Love Your Bike Ad-bike already parked up in place.



I caught up with Pete in the workshop just as they had had a problem with the wheels ceasing up. After Julian had tracked down some grease Pete got the machine moving and rode it up to the start.



However, in the process one of the pedals sheared off, so more running repairs were required from Julian.



With the repairs sorted others started to arrive



and we arranged the bloc with The big bike out front, followed by the sound system and the two remaining members of the Spokes, one couldn't make it following an injury, and then the Ad-bike taking up the rear.



There were a total of 55 people in our section, thanks to the Love Your Bike recruitment campaign and Pavol's team on the hire bikes and cargo cycles. The riders all had flags on their bikes representing a country of their choice (limited to what was available).





Then all of a sudden we were told it was time to move off, and out onto Deansgate in front of the huge crowds.





Then going up St Peters Street yet more running repairs were needed to the big bike and in the attempt to be heard above the drummers in front, my sound system failed on one side. According to those behind it emitted a loud bang and one of the speakers sent out smoke signals. Thankful it didn't catch fire...



We then entered Albert Square



and between running repairs Julian was taking lots of photos of his work which he will hopefully put on his Flickr page soon.

Finally we rolled into Exchange Square to be met with another huge crowd

Our entry seemed to get much more attention this year. I think it was because the puppet was much more colourful and striking.

This MEN web page has several photos.

We even got into the BBC local evening news with a few seconds of the big bike and sound system rolling into shot which was then repeated every half hour during BBC Breakfast on Monday morning.



Image from BBC North West Tonight

I am really grateful for Pete taking on the hard work of organising this year's parade. I only came out of hospital two weeks before, so I could never have done it myself this time. Pete and the rest of the Love Your Bike team brought their great organisational and networking skills to this year's entry which helped enormously.

The remaining question now is what about next year....

Manchester Day, "Going Global!" 2014

This week details were anounced for the Manchester Day Parade.

The parade will be on Sunday 22 June 2014.

The theme this year is ‘Going Global!’.

The deadline for applications is Friday 31st January.

This year there is going to be one important change. After participating last year, several of us felt that the parade ended too quietly, there was no carnival or party to wind down at. Well next year that will change. The organisers, Walk the Plank are aiming to transform some of Manchester’s city squares into "mega parties of amazing décor, mounthwatering food and drink and vibrant performance" as well the parade..



The idea behind the theme of 2014 is to reflect Manchester’s position as a world leader and how the city and its people connect with the world.

So there are many way to take the theme, from cycling around the world, to Critical Mass around the world to great cycling cities of the world.

We need to remember that priority will be given to groups with exciting creative ideas, groups who can demonstrate both a commitment in time* and the capacity and enthusiasm to deliver a quality project and groups who are able to bring some funding or resources to Manchester Day.

A couple of last year's participants have already expressed the idea that this year we should be in the parade and put on a pedal powered party in one of the squares. Who else thinks that would be a good idea and is prepared to put in the effort of making it happen?

If you would like to be involved then email me at mdp(at)gmx.co.uk



* (e.g. 1 workshop of 2-3 hours per week for 4 weeks)

Manchester Day Bike Parade Plans

The GMCC entry in the Manchester Day Parade is coming together. Artist/maker, Julian Taylor is building a giant bike, and we need your help to build the giant bike rider.

Our outline plan for the theme of Wish You Were Here is Wish You Were Here on your bike . Rather than a demo or the like, this will be an open invitation to the crowd to join us on their bikes in Manchester. The sculpture will be the centrepiece of the entry. It needs to be tall enough to get up above the heads of the crowd to be seen. We are thinking of putting it on a large bike trailer, but that may change.

The current plan is that we will have one or two cargo bikes carrying sound systems and pulling the sculpture.We may then be able to have around 30 - 40 places for people on pedal cycles. At this stage I think it would be good to have groups of 4 or 5 people representing different ways in which people can cycle. So for example, we could have representation from Tweed Ride on historic machines, a road club in colours, bikes in bloom with flowers in baskets, fixies, shopper bikes, lowriders or whatever....

The point being that everyone in the crowd should be able to identify with at least one person in the parade and think, yes, that's how I want to cycle. This was inspired by meeting someone at work who had just taken up cycling to work this week. Her shiny new, and rather stylish bike had been turning heads in the bike shed all week. It was a case of finding someone who had just decided to cycle, wearing smart clothes to go with the stylish bike and was clearly enjoying the experience.

Now, this is where we need help. To make this parade work well I will need at least around 50 people to be there on the day to ride bikes. We will also need help with the building of the sculpture and its infrastructure, to coordinate the project, sort out sound systems etc.

We need help on Sunday 19th May building the rider.

Location:
Unit 4a Manchester Industrial Estate
New Elm Road
Off Water Street
Manchester
M3 4JW

From 11 to 1am and from 2 till 5pm.