A GIANT Wolfhound, ancient horns and harp, a punk choir, disco and an almighty rave – these are the spectacular preparations which are currently underway for Belfast's St Patrick’s Day parade.
Created by community focused carnival company, Beat Carnival, the day celebrating Ireland’s patron saint will feature a community supported parade which will snake its way through the city centre to entertain thousands of spectators.
PARADE: The whole Beat Carnival team in their workshop with their preparations for the parade 
The parade will leave City Hall at 1.30pm and proceed through Chichester Street, Victoria Street, High Street, Castle Place, Donegall Place and then head back to City Hall.
This year’s parade focus is on Belfast’s designation as a UNESCO city of music and the parade will major heavily on Ireland and Belfast’s rich and diverse musical traditions.
Hugh Brown, Creative Performance Director at Beat Carnival, explained how Ireland and Belfast’s unique musical history have been weaved into this year’s parade.
“We start with the ancient horns of Ireland and that merges into traditional Irish music and percussion," he said. "From there it leads to disco and how disco was for everyone and disco’s impact on the LGBTQ+ community. Then we go into punk and it’s very clear for a lot of people in Belfast how important punk was. It was very expressive and was a brilliantly expressive form of music for people during our recent past and Belfast really developed its own brand of punk music.
"We finish off with rave music and will have a massive rave float with dancers around it and it’s a scene I remember very well in the late '80s and early '90s and how it brought people together and sowed the seeds for the Good Friday Agreement long before politicians got involved.”
WOLFHOUND: John Quinn with the giant Wolfhound which will be in this year's parade
Tanya Kearns, Community Engagement Coordinator at Beat Carnival, explained how Beat Carnival work with the whole community and allow them to take ownership of the parade and express themselves through creating the brilliant visuals which accompany the flotillas.
“Belfast is a very diverse and vibrant parade and we want to represent that so we get community representation from all corners of the city to capture what Belfast really looks like.
“We have a community workshop programme which runs alongside the parade. We visit community groups in the months leading up to the parade, myself and a team of visual artists make things for the groups to wear in the parade and we do that from January to March. It gives community groups a sense of ownership over the parade and it gives the community a chance to express what they’ve been working on.”
COSTUMES: Jess Boyd, Sam Bailes and Becky Hamilton are involved in creating the parade's brilliant costumes
Tanya explained how a youth group working with Beat Carnival are currently involved in making punk protest signs which will accompany the punk choir on the day.
“Four nights a week we have community engagement programmes here and I coordinate the youth part of that. They take part in the parade as well and one group are part of an ‘Art for Activism’ group and they’re really interested in making art for social change and bringing it into the punk theme for the parade and they’ve been making protest signs and outfits for the parade.”
PREPARATION: Timmy Hamilton works on a head which will go on top of the parade's main float
Hugh explained he works in a similar way but he helps the different community groups with their performance and choreography to make sure they are confident and prepared for the day.
Hugh also stated he is currently working on a project involving 25-year-olds who were born in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement. ‘Project 25’ will give voice to those who have grown up with the peace accord and Hugh stated if any 25-year-olds wish to get involved they should contact Beat Carnival and they can also take part in the parade.
“We want people of that age to come and represent themselves and we want to give them a voice as they are the real voice of the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement.”
COMMUNITY: Beat Carnival work with community groups to make communities at the forefront of the parade
Tanya said Beat Carnival are currently hosting an exhibition on the making of this year’s parade which will launch on Thursday night at Belfast Central Library.
“The launch night will be on Thursday at Belfast Central Library for the grand opening from 5pm to 6.30pm. Hugh will be there with his circus performers and we’ll have samba drummers. It will show people how Beat Carnival is a carnival company and we home-make everything in our parades and how we are very community based in our events.”
