Elephant Parade returns to UK with first-ever national tour

Elephant Parade today announces it will be returning to the UK this summer with its most ambitious parade ever. A herd of elephants will embark on Elephant Parade’s first-ever countrywide tour – which will last more than 10 months and will visit more than a dozen locations across England, Scotland and Wales.

elephant communications has been engaged to handle the logistics and communications for the tour which is sponsored by intu.

The Elephant Parade national tour will see artists, celebrities and elephant sponsors come together to create vibrant art creations on elephant statues – a festival of colour that will energise the host towns and cities as well as raise awareness and funds for elephant conservation. 

For the first time, Elephant Parade has chosen to go indoors. The UK tour will be presented by tour sponsor intu, enabling millions of families to enjoy the colourful, artistic creations in its regional shopping centres with other venues to be confirmed. People will be able to enjoy the elephants without having to dodge the unpredictable British weather and Elephant Parade will have exposure to intu’s 320 million annual visitors. 

Billed as the ‘people’s parade,’ the 2013/14 national tour aims to engage people from all walks of life. For the first time, a major education progamme for schools will form an integral part of the project, fulfilling Elephant Parade’s ambition to raise greater awareness of the plight of the Asian elephant. In addition to school talks and conservation workshops, school children will create their own elephants that will join the parade creations from top artists. 

Elephant Parade’s return to the UK follows 11 successful parades that have been held in major cities around the world - including Amsterdam, Singapore, London, Copenhagen and Milan. Millions have been raised for Asian elephant conservation projects through the auction or sale of the elephants and previous parades have included contributions from top artists and celebrities, including: Paul Smith, Ferrari, Jodie Kidd, Jack Vettriano, Mackenzie Thorpe, Ricky Gervais, Leona Lewis, Tommy Hilfiger, Joss Stone, and Aston Martin. 

The tour schedule and dates will be announced at the end of March 2013 and artist discussions are already underway. 

Artists, celebrities and brands that wish to register interest in getting involved in the 2013/14 UK tour should register at www.elephantcommunications.co.uk. Details on the schools programme will be announced in April 2013. 

Joris Linders, Managing Director at Elephant Parade commented: “This is our biggest project to date: our first country tour, an event that will run for six times longer than a usual parade and will allow us to connect with more people. Having visited 11 cities around the world, we wanted to do something different for our return to the UK and moving most of the tour indoors opens up exciting opportunities to do things we have never been able to do before. Given the massive space requirements for an indoor tour, intu were a perfect fit, in terms of having the floor-space, national reach and resources to accommodate our ambitions and needs. Their new digital programme for UK shopping centres will also enable the public to get involved in new ways through social and mobile media.” 

Trevor Pereira, Commercial Director at intu added: “Elephant Parade needs no introduction. Wherever it goes, it enlivens, energises and stimulates the places it visits and offers something for everyone. In supporting the new tour, we are breaking the exclusivity of a single city event and presenting the elephants in venues where families can enjoy the parade as part of a day out. We are adding exciting elements at each stage of the tour. We’ve been planning the event with Elephant Parade for a number of months and are proud to be presenting what we think will be the definitive Elephant Parade, a national tour with local flavour that offers a welcome boost to retailers and will give millions of people a reason to smile.”

Details on the Elephant Parade 2013/14 Mall Tour venues, dates and participating artists will be released at the end of March 2013. To register interest in getting involved in the tour visit www.elephantcommunications.co.uk