600 Years of History


The Giant City creates a link to our past, present and future with a vibrant city full of parades, festivals, giant statues, events and merchandise.

During the 14th century Chester was a city of great influence in the North West. Unknown too many, Chester was in fact the Giant making capital of the United Kingdom, famed for their ‘dancing giants’ during a time when every town and city had a giant, each created to ward off evil spirits. Representatives from towns and cities across the UK came to Chester to have their giants made, which were then paraded at the solstices in their home towns and cities, the largest of which was the Summer Solstice. References to Giants, dating back as early as 1327, can be found in Chester’s City & Guild Records.


Giants were walking the streets of Chester in the late 1400s until the puritanical reign of Oliver Cromwell in the mid 1660s.
 

Chester"s modern Family of Giants started life when Dave Roberts came across “Nathandriel”, A Giant that was on a visit from Huddersfield to Chester. Nathandriel"s maker Lee Gilbert, had brought Nathandriel on a pilgrimage to Chester. Roberts was so inspired by the notion that Giants had been such an important activity in Chester he decided to reintroduce the building of Giants into Chester as a creative way in which to encourage young people in Lache and Blacon to gain an insight into their culture and heritage.

In Midsummer 1989 a male giant (still used in the Midsummer Watch today), and the Father of Chester’s current Family of Giants, became the first giant to walk through the streets of Chester for over 300 years. Then, as now, Chester is unique in that it has a Family of Giants, (father, mother and two daughters).

2010 was the 21st Anniversary of Chester's modern Family of Giants, and to celebrate there was a Giant Exhibition in Chester Cathedral (1st - 20th June) and a spectacular  Midsummer Carnival with local, national and international Giants taking to the streets of Chester in the BiG Giant Festival (19th & 20th June).

Future Aims

Local 

Chester- The Giant City will create 4 major Festivals to coincide with the Solstices and Equinox. The major Festival is Midsummer and will link with the Chestival initiative. In 2010 The Giants recieved a grant of £20,000 and created a weekend of spectacular Giant activity involving 47 community Giants. In 2011 the intention is to involve 100 community Giants in this major event and by 2012, 206 Giants.

Regional

Chester- The Giant City has applied for the Cultural Olympiad Inspire Mark. This will link the Giants and their respective communities to both Regional and National Activity in relation to the Olympics and Paralympics. Regionally the impact of the June 2010 Midsummer Giant Parade in Chester has started to resonate across the whole of Cheshire, as the notion that all communities can become involved in the Chester- The Giant City vision to transform lives through self-help and action. The potential to link regional communities through a common goal to international communities to take part in a cultural Olympic event has also started to gain momentum.

Chester- The Giant City is also being invited to take part in regionally organised Festival activity, examples including, Preston Guild Parade, the Olympic Torch Bearing Ceremony and Cultural Olympiad Midsummer Events.

National

Numerous communities across the UK already have Giants that are used in local community celebrations. Chester- The Giant City will create a national grid festival in Chester in June 2011 as part of the Chestival celebrations. In 2012 the National Giants will be invited to join the Cultural Olympiad celebrations in Chester, Preston and the Notting Hill Carnival in London.

International

As part of the Olympic celebrations, Chester-The Giant City is aiming to gather together 206 Giants, one to represent each country taking part in the Olympics. These Giants will either come from around the world, or will be made in local communities (working alongside world class artists), across Cheshire and the North West, thus enabling people at local and regional levels to volunteer and become involved in the Cultural Olympiad Programme.

OLDER NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

William & Catherine in Chester

William and Catherine Middleton take time out of their busy pre-wedding schedule to talk to the Lord and Lady Mayoress of Chester during their Easter visit to the Giant Food, Drink and Lifestyle Festival at Chester racecourse.

They were also seen thanking the Event Team who made their day such a success.

Giant William and Catherine also took part in the Wedding Street Party celebrations on Edgar's Field, Handbridge, Chester.

 William and Catherine are just two of the 100 Giants that will be taking part in the MBNA Chestival, Carnival of Giants in Chester on Sunday 12th June 2011. 

 

 Chester - The Giant City Goes Global

Sunday 3rd October 2010 was an historic day for Chester - The Giant City as our Chairman David Pickering and Jaume Lopez Puigbo, the President of the Circle for the International Association of Giants (CIAG) shook hands on a deal that will make Chester the centre for Giants world-wide by 2013.
Over the last 25 years CIAG has made contact with 90 national Giant-building organisations across 5 continents.
As Chester - The Giant City takes up the reins of CIAG it will continue to find and add Giants to this international circle of Giants.

Chester - The Giant City and CIAG are work collaboratively over the next two years, to ensure a smooth handing over of responsibilty. This work will include bringing some of the worlds most spectacular giants to Chester, to hold an international Giant Symposium and, for the Giants  to take part in Chester's Cultural Olympiad festive activities.

 Kristine

Project Director -

 

 

GiANTS at the Great West Door of Chester Cathedral

 

LILY
Lady of the Lake

The Old Man Ga; Flo; Clarice
and the two Square Heads

Aerfon


GiANT CHESS


GiANTS and crowds fill Bridge Street

 

 

 

 

 One of our YouTube videos: (please contact us if you have anymore?)

PAST PARTNERSHIPS

 

 

BiG Storage (Chester)

NATIONAL GIANT CENTRE - at BiG Storage, Chester
For two years Andrew Donaldson, Entrepreneur and Business Partner for BiG Storage has supported Chester- the Giant City by offering 3000 sq ft of free storage and workshop space in the Loft at BiG Storage, Chester. The Loft is the hub for the Giant community activity and work is developed in close collaboration with Nacro (Rehabilitation of young offenders), Milestones (Homeless and Substance abuse), Chapter (mental health), and Community Organisations (e.g. Guides, Scouts, Action 4 Children, Oxfam, University). Within this space we offer training and work experience for creative artists; are developing a volunteer programme; and a community outreach programme. 

The centre is based in BiG Storage on Sealand Road, Chester.  At the Giant Centre we specialise in the storage, repair, design (of the giants and of the costumes), innovation, knowledge and exhibtion of community giants.


 B&Q CHESTER

 This is an early-stage Parnership development that has evolved out of a community arts material fund. B&Q have since gone on to supply materials for community art projects and in return Chester- The Giant City have supplied Giants for the B&Q Community Week. This community collaboration is set to develop through 2011 as B&Q work with their staff and community groups to design and create a B&Q Giant. 

  GIANT BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROJECT

How do you raise money to buy a frame to build a Giant? Or raise enough money to buy materials for a Giant costume? 

To help answer these questions and to encourage young people to develop a taste for business, Entrepreneur Andrew Donaldson (BiG Storage) created a Giant Enterprise project at Queen's Park High School, Chester.

Last year, Years 12 & 13 Business Students raised the money, built and dressed a Giant that took part in the Giant Parades on June 19th & 20th 2010 in Chester.  The whole of Yr 7 students meanwhile designed and created a Giant Exhibition at the National Giant Centre (25th & 26th June 2010).

 WOOD N GARDENS

A start-up business enterprise organised by CHAPTER for men with mental health problems, this company needed a source of income to kick-start their business of using recycled wood to create garden ornaments. Giants supplied good quality pallets and commissioned the company to make, 'A-frames' for the Giant structures.

NAVMAN (Stoke-on-Trent)

GIANT BUSINESS ENTERPRISE PROJECT

Entrepreneur Tony Neill (Director of Navman) is working in collaboration with Stanford Business College to develop a Giant Business Enterprise Project. 

The aim of the project is to encourage students to raise money to purchase and make a Giant.  Last year the Giant and its student entourage took part in the 1910 Federation Festival on 6th June at the Etruria Museum, in Stoke-on-Trent.

After the Festival the Giant then travelled on the Towy Canal boat from Stoke to Chester to take part in the Giant Exhibition in Chester Cathedral, the BiG Giant Parade over the Midsummer Weekend, and the Giant Chess Game.

 DALE FORGE

Chester- The Giant City work with a local Blacksmith to design and produce the wheel-bases for the Giants. This is an on-going partnership, the work from the Giants supply the Blacksmith with business in slack periods, thus enabling him to maintain his workforce.

 TOWY CANAL BOAT (Chester) towy.webs.com/

The owners of this amazing canal boat offered six students who raised the most money from the Queen's Park High School Business Enterprise project an opportunity to man the canal boat for 2.5 days and to take their Giant from Chester to the Etruria Federation Festival, 6th June 2010.  On the return journey six students from Stoke-on-Trent returned the favour and took their Giant from Stoke to Chester for the Giant Exhibition & Parade on 19th & 20th June 2010.

 GROUNDWORK MAINTENANCE LTD

A partnership with a local company to mass-produce 'A-frames' for the Giants. The partnership, initially set up to secure employment for staff during off-peak working periods, may expand and develop into a workshop and training centre.