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The latest 2017 guide to South Tyneside is out. Request your own free 33 page copy of the guide when you book online on our website.
Here is an extract from the latest 2017 guide to South Tyneside…
The biggest event of its type in the North East is a cornerstone in the region’s cultural calendar, and requires a veritable village of people to pull off — 2,000 in all will take part. Taking Once Upon A Time as its theme this year, the Summer Parade is back, bigger than ever.
On 1st July the Summer Parade returns to South Tyneside, celebrating the height of the summer in the biggest carnival in the North East. The parade’s theme this year is Once Upon A Time, celebrating the magic and wonder of storytelling in all its formats, bringing a cavalcade of some of literature’s best-loved characters to life in front of your very eyes.
The parade, which is one of the highlights of the South Tyneside Festival, will feature magical creatures, courageous heroes and beautiful princesses, while extravagantly-decorated floats will pass along the parade route, enthralling all those who watch. Mixed in among the parade will be marching bands, stilt walkers and dance troupes inspired by traditional folk tales and fables.
Embarking from South Shields Town Hall at 1pm and making its way along Ocean Road before arriving at the seafront, the parade will wend its way to Bents Park, where there’ll be a range of live music and storytelling-themed activities for the whole family to take part in.
This will be a three-hour extravaganza, but the hard work in preparing it has been going on for months. Husband and wife Sandy and Garner Harris, working together as The Creative Seed, are the team who make sure that the event goes off smoothly. The pair met in 1992, when Garner was working as a dancer and Sandy as a costume supervisor on the West End production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Starlight Express.
They’re now part of a 14-person team (including their daughter and son), and have called in expertise from around the world to ensure the parade is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all those who see it.
The parade will have five themes, telling tales and taking inspiration from The Arabian Nights, The Jungle Book, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Peter Pan. Some of the 2,000 parade walkers will climb into three-metre high and wide structures made of aluminium and festooned with decorations and costumes that bring these fantastic fairy tales from our childhoods to vibrant, colourful life.
“People enjoy carnivals and parades because it’s a party,” says Sandy. “People are coming together, talking, having fun. There’s a family atmosphere about it. It’s a very inclusive party – that’s what carnival is.”
The parade’s an international performance, combining acting, dance and marvellous mechanical structures. Large Indian elephants will stampede along the parade route – made by The Creative Seed and Adrian Young, who travelled from Trinidad and Tobago to help prepare for the parade. They’ll help tell the story of The Jungle Book on one of the many floats that will travel the route, enthralling and entertaining the audience every step of the way.
The Summer Parade is just one part of the captivating calendar of events occurring in the area this summer as part of the South Tyneside Festival, a three month long programme of family-friendly events, open-air concerts, activities and entertainment. Packed full of feelgood moments, and bringing some of the biggest names in entertainment to the shoreline of South Tyneside, it’s a major cultural happening that’s not to be missed.
The formative tales we’re told in childhood are some of the most captivating stories we ever read, and live with us forever. Whether you’re rooting for Hansel and Gretel, want to be young forever like Peter Pan, or dream that some day your prince will come like Cinderella, there’s something for everyone in the riot of colour, music, song and dance that attracts participants from across the country and around the world. To make sure you don’t miss a single step of it, line up along the route and cheer along the sights, sounds and incredible, unmissable atmosphere of the South Tyneside Summer parade – a key date for your cultural calendar.
All points of the parade route are just a few minutes’ walk from the finish point at Bents Park, on South Shields seafront, where there will be a great afternoon of tree fun for all the family to enjoy.
Join in with the storytelling-inspired activities, get up close to the impressive parade floats and enjoy a tasty bite to eat or a refreshing drink in the food village and beer tent. Throughout the afternoon there’ll be lots of entertainment and live music, including a fantastic finale by ABBA Express. It’s not to be missed!
Here is a short South Tyneside tourism video to watch while you wait for your booking confirmation email to arrive…
Monday 1st June 2026, 16:06 BST
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