Introducing Ellie the Eel
Ellie is our mascot for Eel Festival Weekend. She was named by the students who made our very first eel which headed our parade back in 2004. New eels have joined us since - here is their story.
Ellie the Eel is looking forward to celebrating VE Day, paraded by Babylon ARTS. Their story from the first eel in 2004 to now!
The first Eel Day took place on Saturday 3rd April 2004 (can you believe it has been going that long!). Visit Ely and ADeC (now known as Babylon ARTS) worked together to launch the city's new Eel Trail and decided that we should have an Eel Parade.
On that day the first ADeC eel was released into the wild. She was called Ellie and was built in St. Mary’s Junior School, Ely. Ellie was funded by the Local Network Fund and the work was led by The Luton Carnival Development Trust and Art All Over. Ellie led the way in both 2005 and 2006.
Going in and out of storage took its toll on Ellie, and by 2007 it was decided that a new eel was needed. Local artist John Lyons was commissioned to create a lightweight, bright and colourful eel. Working with the Barns community in Ely, he created Eddie who made his debut in 2007 and 2008.
In 2009 ADeC embarked on the creation of eel number three, led by artists Digby & Claire Chacksfield and Rachel Parker. They started by holding a consultation evening at the Lighthouse Centre in Ely, where people were invited and encouraged to share ideas and discuss how the Eel should look and the design could be improved. Whilst the construction of Neel was underway, participants were able to print eel T-shirts with Cary Outis and create mini eel puppets on sticks.
Neel’s special features included a bubble blowing machine from his mouth and a skin made out of lots of printed maps of Ely depicting where the various eel builders lived.
In 2009, an Eel King and Queen were also introduced to lead the eel along the parade. The King and Queen carried an eel trap and gleave made especially by local eel catcher Peter Carter (now retired). Their outfits were provided by Oliver Cromwell’s House.
In 2010, the ADeC Arts Crew helped carry a shortened version of Ellie the eel, due to some parts not surviving the winter hibernation.
In 2012, ADeC were running a steward training and event management course. Eel day provided a perfect opportunity for the adult students to experience a public community event – and they got to help transport the eels at the same time!
In 2014, Cary Outis graduated from Eel T-shirt printer to eel builder extraordinaire as he oversaw the creation of Eel four. For this eel Cary worked closely with the ADeC Arts Crew to construct the first eel that participants would be able to get inside. Once again participants put forward name suggestions, with the winning name being Denzeel. This eel was paraded 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018.
Despite the original Ellie's sad departure, her name lives on as this is the name many people like to use to describe whichever eel leads the parade!
This leads us to 2019, where the repaired and refreshed Ellie the Eel starred in the Eel Day Parade once again. Her repairs were paid for through the Babylon ARTS’ successful Ellie the Eel Christmas appeal.
The donations raised helped Babylon ARTS to run free workshops and arts activities with over 100 local people to create a fantastic spectacle for the Eel Day parade that took place on Saturday 4th May 2019. The workshops were led by John Lyons an experienced carnival artist, who originally created this eel back in 2007.
Both the repaired Ellie and Denzeel were paraded in 2019.
Sadly for reasons beyond our control, Eel Day and our wonderful patriotic Ellie had to stay home! Watch out for her and all her friends for 2021! You can still make an Eel from our Virtual Resource page link or join in the Fascinating Fens project to keep their spirits alive!
Original information provided by Nathan Jones, updated by Babylon ARTS’ Head of Project Delivery, Florence Rose.
