The ferry ’cross the Mersey is looking a little psychedelic these days. Sir Peter Blake,who designed the album cover of the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Ba nd, has painted the ship in dazzle camouflage. The tactic, used during the First World War, confuses the viewer, making it difficult to estimate how far away the ship is, its speed and direction.
The artistic paint job is part of the year-round events programme organised by the Liverpool Biennial. Sally Tallant, its director, said: “The ferry has been really embraced by local people. Not only are they using it, somebody made a cake of it.”
Already a tourist attraction, the newly dazzled ferry is expected to pull in even greater numbers of passengers, each paying about £9.
Liverpool Biennial estimates that the art festival has had an economic impact of almost £120 million in the city during the past ten years. Last year it attracted 877,000 visitors, who spent almost £21 million in Liverpool’s hotels, restaurants and shops.
Ms Tallant said the economic impact went far beyond that. “There are a number of universities in the area. If you are making a choice between cities, you might want to choose a city that has got a really rich cultural offer year-round. And then the students bring additional economic impact to the city themselves.”
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She sees Liverpool as fertile ground for nurturing the workforce of the creative industries. “The opportunity that artists at an early stage in their career can have here — they can afford to live well, they can have a nice house, they can afford to take risks in their practice. We have the conditions to create the future artists, leaders, entrepreneurs here.”