The surreal memorial ritual is coming to the Wirral next month
Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond of the KLF present one of the many bricks forming The People’s Pyramid(Image: Colin Lane/Liverpool Echo)
A pyramid built from human ashes will rise again in Birkenhead Park next month – and everyone’s invited to take part. The event, called “The Birkenhead Day of the Dead: Calling the Ancestors,” will see people come together on Sunday, November 23 to add new bricks to “The People’s Pyramid,” a growing monument created by former members of The KLF, Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond.
Each brick contains the ashes of a loved one – known as the “Ancestors” – and is laid into the structure during a ceremony described as “equal parts absurd spectacle and powerful community ritual.”
The unique project began in Toxteth in 2018 and has grown each year, with 92 bricks already added. This year’s ceremony moves to Birkenhead Park for the first time, where a stage show and specially commissioned film and soundtrack by TowerBlock1 (Jimmy Cauty) will accompany the bricklaying.
When the building stops, the celebration continues with the Afterlife Party at Future Yard on Argyle Street (10pm–1am), featuring DJs curated by Sports Banger, an all-inclusive, internationally recognised DIY fashion house, record label and socially conscious satirists of British pop culture, class and politics.
There’s also a strict hi-viz dress code, keeping with the theme of the organisers’ construction company, K2 Plant Hire Ltd.
A celebration of life and death
The People’s Pyramid is the creation of Cauty and Drummond, better known for their work as The KLF – one of the most provocative and influential bands of the early 1990s, famous for burning £1 million in cash as an art statement.
Instead of a comeback tour, the pair reformed in 2017 with a three-day Liverpool event called “Welcome to the Dark Ages,” which led to the creation of The People’s Pyramid.
Each year, people who have chosen to be “MuMufied” – meaning their ashes are sealed in a brick to be added to the pyramid – are honoured in the ceremony. Friends and family carry the bricks in a procession before they are added to the growing structure.
When 34,592 bricks have been laid and The People’s Pyramid stands 23 feet high, it will be complete(Image: K2 Plant Hire Ltd.)How to take part
There are two ticket options. Pyramid Builder Tickets give access to the full day, including the Skool of the Spektacle at Liverpool’s Adelphi Hotel (12–3pm), a ferry crossing of the Mersey with the “Brick Kin” at 4:30pm, and entry to the ceremony (6.30pm) and afterparty.
Pyramid Witness Tickets offer access to the main event at Birkenhead Park and the afterparty at Future Yard.
Tickets go on sale via futureyard.org from 2:30pm on Thursday, October 23.
The organisers say the event is “for the people, by the people, of the people” – and that everyone is welcome to witness the next step in a monument that could take generations to complete.