Custom
The Midsummer Giants
A giant family walks at Midsummer.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Four-metre giants and a dragon in the streets
- Legend from
- Civic pageant records
- Best time
- Midsummer (June)
- Tone
- Festive
Make way! The giants of Chester walk again at Midsummer, as they have since 1498.
Chester's Midsummer Watch Parade was first held in 1498, under Mayor Richard Goodman. It was run by the city guilds in years when the Mystery Plays were not performed. Its stars were giants of buckram and pasteboard. Chester was unusual in parading a whole family: father, mother and two daughters. Beasts went with them, including a unicorn, an elephant, a camel and a dragon. In 1599 Mayor Henry Hardware banned the parade and ordered the giants broken up, but it returned the next year and carried on until the 1670s. Today the giants are being rebuilt. The new father first walked in 2025, and a new mother joined him in 2026.