Liverpool plans seven weeks of festivals for Cunard Cruise Line’s 175th anniversary
WHEN Cunard Cruise Line celebrates its 175th anniversary in Liverpool this May, the city will already be enjoying a seven-week festival of art and history exhibitions highlighting its unique links with America and the first transatlantic crossings.
One Magnificent City starts on May 15, with photography exhibitions, gigantic audio and visual projections across the city and tall ships in the docks.
It culminates on the July 4 weekend with live music and street performers around the waterfront plus an attempt to smash the Guinness World Record for the biggest fashion show ever staged.
On July 4 Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 will also be docked on the River Mersey for the 175th Anniversary Crossing to commemorate the original transatlantic crossing by Cunard’s RMS Britannia from Liverpool in 1840.
Now organisers, including Red or Dead founder Wayne Hemingway, are appealing for volunteers to take part in the fashion show – and you don’t need to be a model to join in.
Wayne is hoping whole teams of people will sign up for The Very Big Catwalk to take the record from Mexico City, which had 3,083 people parading on a proper catwalk to take the Guinness World Record title in November 2013.
“We want 5,000 people and if I have my way we will have more!” he says.
“I think the health and safety people are thinking ‘shut up Wayne’, but we are not having 3,500 paid-up models – we just want people who are into fashion.
“This is Liverpool! We want people to try and get their wedding dresses back on; we want Quick Fit fitters, police, nurses; we want religious groups and dock workers; we want people to come along in groups.”
The catch is that those taking part must be able to walk like a model along the catwalk, so they will have to submit to a short lesson before the event at Liverpool 1 shopping centre.
Also involved will be TV fashion producer Jane Galpin, who has made shows such as How To Look Good Naked and the BBC’s Clothes Show.
“Liverpool 1 is giving us a great rehearsal space and we are going to spend a few hours with each group and train them to walk with confidence, with their heads held up high,” she says.
Wayne adds: “It will be real fun learning, for a couple of hours, how to catwalk.”
To sign up go to www.cultureliverpool.co.uk, where you can also find out about some of the other events during the One Magnificent City celebrations and over the July 4 weekend.
These include Sound City 2015, which runs from May 21-24, International Mersey River Festival & Music on the Waterfront on June, 5-7 and a Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon on June 14.
The July 4 weekend will have a Vintage Festival on the waterfront on the Saturday and Sunday, a cavalcade of 175 classic vehicles – American and European – and a street food festival at Albert Dock called Eat The Atlantic, representing the best of British and American food.
Queen Mary 2 will be docked at the city’s cruise terminal next to the Three Graces buildings on the waterfront,
having left Southampton on July 2.
Cabins are still available for the 12-night cruise, which calls at Halifax in Canada, then Boston and New York after leaving Liverpool.
Inside cabins cost from £2,599pp (two sharing) with balcony cabins from £3,599pp (two sharing) including a return flight from New York.
For more information go to www.cunard.co.uk, and for more details about Liverpool’s celebrations go to www.onemagnificentcity.co.uk.
