Cow Parade

Cow Parade is the worlds largest free art exhibition. It originated in Chicago in 1999 and is working its way around the world. It is basically life size cows (not real obviously!!!!) made of resin or plastic and companies sponsor cows and then invite artists to design them. The cows are around for about four months and then they are auctioned off for charity. I was lucky enough to be in Chicago in 1999 when the cows were in town.


I was visiting my friend in Niles, Michigan and had booked a couple of nights in Chicago before flying home and she told me to 'Watch out for the Cows In Chicago'. I did not have a clue what she was talking about, but she just said you will know when you see them!!!!!! Soon enough when we got to Chicago we saw them scattered about all over. There was quite a few on Michigan Drive which is the main shopping area, John Hancock Building, Intercontinental Hotel and Sport Stadiums as well as many other locations. It was not possible to see them all as there were over 300 all over the city.






Although Chicago was the first official Cow Parade it did actually start in the summer of 1998 in Zurich as a trial by Beat Seeberger-Quin. The cows are all given names with a reference to the design, location or theme of the cow. One particular cow which became famous after Cow Parade in Chicago was 'Sky Cow' which was auctioned off and bought by Oprah Winfrey and is said to be grazing at her ranch in Indiana!!!!


In December 2000, I had booked a Christmas shopping trip to New York with my mum and my friend and found out that the Cows had been there in the summer, between June and September. We were a bit gutted we had missed them, but a lot of the gift shops especially Hallmark were selling miniature replica cows from the New York and Chicago Cow Parade. This was when my addiction began!!!!!!! I bought about three I think, as I was conscious about getting them home in one piece. I had tried to buy them in Chicago, but nobody seemed to be selling them at the time.






Since Chicago and New York Cow Parade has been all over the world to cities including Tokyo, Denver, Sao Paulo, Bratislava and Auckland among many more. I have caught three parades in London, Manchester and South Africa but I as gutted to miss Edinburgh and Dublin as they are easy to get to from where I live.


Cow Parade is very popular now and you can buy the miniature Cows from shops all over the world, but after our trip to New York and I had decided I was going to collect them, you could only buy them online in the USA.


This did prove very costly especially as I was being charged tax from the postman when he delivered them depending on the value. I had originally decided to collect every one from each parade but that became impossible as there were about two or three a year in various cities and the fact that there would be up to about fifty on sale from each parade, I would need to win the lottery a few times over. I decided to check out cows on each parade and put my favourite on my birthday and Christmas wish list. They cost between £12.99 and £19.99 for the small cows so it can be very costly. You can buy the cows for a certain time and then the Cow Parade company retire them out to pasture and you then find them hard to buy. Some of the older cows from Chicago and New York have become quite valuable.


The London Cow Parade ran from June until September 2002, the charities benefiting from the auction were Childline and RABI. We booked a weekend down to London to try and see as many cows as possible, we managed to get a list of them all and the locations of where they were and ticked them off as we saw them. We did see quite a lot but they were spread out all over, so it was not possible to see them all. I think there were about 150 cows in total all over London in different locations such as The Ritz Hotel, Liberty Store, The BBC, Berkeley Square and Buckingham Palace among others. In some locations such as Haymarket, Marble Arch, St Katherines Dock and Canary Wharf (to name a few!!) there would be more then one cow. Some of my favourite cows were 'Beef Wellington, 'Cow Bus', 'Sea Cow' and 'Cower Bridge'.


It was fun travelling around London hunting for them and we were very lucky that the weather was warm. The one thing that did disappoint me was the vandalised cows at the Opera House at Covent Garden. There was one which had been written on, and another which had a broken foot (why would somebody do that?) It is just disgusting that the organisers, sponsors and artists go to all the trouble and hard work and somebody has to spoil it.


The summer of 2004 saw Cow Parade travel to Manchester with over 100 cows residing all over the city. The chosen charity for the Manchester parade was Manchester Kids. We travelled to Manchester for a Cow Parade hunt, location list in one hand and camera in the other. There were over 100 cows in Manchester scattered about in different locations. Again we were very lucky with the weather as it was lovely and sunny.


We travelled to Manchester Piccadilly by train and one of the first cows we saw was the Dangermoo-se Cow. As my husband is a big kid and Dangermouse fan he was quite happy!!!! We did not get round to see every cow as they were located all over the city including Manchester Airport and Wythenshaw. The cows that were in the city centre were easy to find and there was a few in each location including St Ann's Square, The Lowry, Victoria Station and Piccadilly Gardens.






As far as I am aware they provided great entertainment to all who saw them as there were always loads of people around them taking photos. There were ten cows on the Arndale Centre which is always really busy anyway. Some of my favourite cows from this parade were Mooer's Moomalade (Triangle), Daisy Beckham (Arndale), Vivienne Westwood Cowture (St Ann's Square) and China Moon (Lincoln Square). Some of the cows that resided in Victoria Station and the Arndale Centre were actual seats that you sit on.


I bought about four or five miniature cows from Cow Parade Manchester, the problem is I do not have anywhere to put any more and I have had a few which have been broken when people have been to my house and picked them up as they are so fragile.
In 2004 my husband and I had booked a holiday to South Africa visiting Cape Town, Durban and Victoria Falls in Zambia. We found out that Cow Parade would be in South Africa when we were there so we looked forward to that.




One of the Partners of Cow Parade South Africa was Kulula which is a low cost airline that operates within South Africa. Because we had booked a couple of flights with them, we managed to find out information on the aircraft about where the cows would be and what dates etc. The cows were spread out all over the Country from Johannesburg and Pretoria to Durban and Cape Town so there was no way we would be able to see them all.



We were going to Durban and Cape Town so knew we would be able to see the cows there. The South African charity chosen to benefit from the auction was CHOC (Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa). Our first stop was Durban and there were quite a few cows on the sea front and Shopping Centres. There were more cows at Durban than Cape Town, but the majority of them were in Johhannesburg, Sandton and Pretoria. Some of the cows that we saw were Peace Cow, Walter Sisulu, Sisonce and Mooti Cow.








This cow is the Ama moo Moo, Ladumooo. Eish! Hlalala! - The Udderly Bullish Cow which was in one of the shopping centres in Durban. It is promoting the FIFA Soccer World Cup to be held in South Africa in 2010. Cow Parade in South Africa raised over R1 million for Charity and proved to be very popular. Cow Parade has now become so popular and the word is spreading quickly as the parade goes from City to City and Country to Country.




You can buy the miniature versions nearly everywhere now and they are always being sold on eBay. You can also buy books, plush toys and many more. The website that I used to buy everything from is Cows Cows Cows this is great if you live in the US but can be costly if purchasing from outside the US the good thing about this website is it is a very good reference site especially for retired cows and if you are looking for a particular cow and are not sure where it was.

Current cities hosting cow parade at the moment are: Tijuana, Mexico; San Jose, Costa Rica; and the island of Capri, Italy. Coming soon are:Taipei, Taiwan; San Diego, USA; and Madrid, Spain. If you are in or around any of these destinations then I would definetly recommend that you visit the cows.