It was ninety years ago that Mercedes broke the then British Endurance Swim record in Worthing, just down the road from Brighton. Thousands of people came to watch this epic feat. Mercedes loved music and during the 47 hours musicians, singers and actors performed on the pool deck, creating a festival atmosphere and helping raise her spirits as she swam. This was Mercedes’ final Endurance Swim, so it is fitting that Swimming a Long Way Together concluded this phase of the project with this event in Mercedes’ home town.

Rather than a solo effort, our event reimagined Mercedes’ epic feat as a collective undertaking by the wider swimming community. Organised as a relay, the event ensured that at least one swimmer was present in the pool at all times to keep the relay going. During the daytime swimmers swam lengths of the pool alongside Sea Lanes regular members, but outside of those hours, the swimming lanes were removed so that swimmers could swim around the pool in circles as Mercedes did.

Alongside the 47 hours of swimming there was a continuous, rolling programme of poolside entertainment performed for the swimming audience. These performances included readings, live music and DJ sets, contemporary performance art and film. Participants in this programme responded to an open call by Fabrica or were invited by the curatorial team, with both professional and amateur performers from across Sussex and beyond invited to submit an idea for the poolside.

The event included a presentation by Anna Maria Mullally who has been researching Mercedes as part of her PhD into the history of women’s bathing practices; an audio dramatisation and talk hosted by the Swim Out podcast; DJ sets by Katie Byrnes; and a live cross-Channel transmission of a performance by composer Norman Yamada and cellist Frances Bartlett, which reflects the experience of travelling across the Channel; and Sea-Ecstasy, an oral essay celebrating the sea and swimming, written and delivered by author Philip Hoare. The event began and ended with a performance by Bell Lungs, whose set included her rendition of ‘as easy stop the sea’ written by Ruth Clinton for Swimming a Long Way Together.

*Doloranda Pember (2019), In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze, The History Press