Joe GallopLiverpool Football Club’s victory parade, which featured Calvin Harris playing live on the team bus, saw 500,000 fans attend on the city’s streets yesterday, 29 May.
Event safety specialists Symphotech was contracted by Culture Liverpool to help deliver the parade, which involved a 15km route through the city streets to the finalé at Liverpool Waterfront.
Planning began in March, with the club’s season on course for potential in four competitions, and it was confirmed to proceed regardless of whether the Champions League was won because of the club’s two domestic cup victories.
Culture Liverpool city event manager Sue Lees said, “We had learned from 2019’s parade. Liverpool FC wanted the parade to have more colour along the whole route. Here the team from Titanium helped us animate the entire route with pyro and flutter-fetti.
“It made sense to reassemble as much of the events team that had delivered the 2019 Champions League Winner Parade. Eddy Grant and the Symphotech event safety team was an obvious first call, to support Culture Liverpool’s delivery of another tremendous, safe parade.”
Image credit: Jason Roberts
The parade’s principal safety advisor Eddy Grant liaised with Culture Liverpool Merseyside Police and other multi-agency stakeholders to plan the season finale.
Grant said, “It was a great call by Culture Liverpool to draw on the same event professionals who contributed their specialist skills to the last Parade. It’s given us the chance to build on the learnings (from the 2019 Winner’s Parade) and all go into this logistically challenging event more aware of what to expect along the route and amass our strong experience as to what would be required.
“This has been far from dusting off the old event folder though and there was no room for complacency when approaching an event with such a dynamic audience presence. The planning began in March but with the FA Cup win earlier this month it was certain there would be a parade, which gave us a certainty in planning period for this very complex event. We conducted extensive contingency planning which was tested and a thorough table-top exercise with all stakeholders in May.”
Arena general manager fencing and barriers, James Wood, helped install 3,000 Met barriers, 500 Pedestrian Barriers and 200 Heras Fencing panels across the site to secure the bus route and enable multiple road closures.
The production and logistical coordination of the parade was handled by Jon Simms and his team from Event Design.
Key Stakeholders
- Sue Lees and Chloe Gebhardt, Culture Liverpool
- Angie Redhead, Liverpool Council
- Eddy Grant – principal safety advisor, Symphotech director
- Jon Simms – Event Design
- Amy Stanley and Ben Knott – FGH Security
- Superintendent Jonathan Davis Merseyside Police
Key suppliers
- Logistics Production & Crew Event Design
- Radio – NRB
- Barriers – Arena
- Sound Systems – Adlib Audio
- Security – FGH
- Traffic management – Traffic direct
- Traffic Stewards – Paramount Security & Stewarding