Community Post Type: News

The historic Liverpool Olympia, one of the city’s live music cultural cornerstones of the community proudly celebrates its 120th anniversary on Saturday, 26th April.

This monumental milestone marks over a century of world-class performances, cherished memories and culturally significant events. In its time, The Beatles, Paul Weller, New Order, Little Richard, and illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini wowed audiences.  

In recent years, Teddy Swims, The Gossip, Jamie Webster, Elvis Costello and Manic Street Preachers have taken to the venue’s iconic stage.

To celebrate its illustrious history, iconic British rock-band Embrace will be headlining the venue’s birthday show. The multi-platinum-selling band behind hits like “Gravity”  “Ashes” and “All You Good People”, are set to deliver an outstanding performance. 

Following on from their Leeds, Kirkstall Abbey show in front of a crowd of 6,000, fans of the indie rockers can expect an amazing night of live music since the band last appeared at the venue in 2016. 

Britpop icons The Bluetones will appear as special guests. They first came to prominence in 1995, when their debut release “Are You Blue Or Are You Blind” broke into the Top 40. The single proved to be the launching pad leading to “Expecting to Fly” becoming a number one UK album, and a career spanning 14 hit singles and six albums. 

The Real People play the venue for the first time, these pioneers of the Britpop Movement and Liverpool legends were instrumental in Oasis’s catastrophic rise to superstardom. 

Continuing to represent Liverpool’s music scene, Rats’ raucous energy, swagger and charisma promise to get the birthday show off to a flying start. Rats’ singles have over a million listeners on Spotify, with their debut album due for imminent release.

Chris Zorba, owner of the Liverpool Olympia, said: “I am proud to take this iconic venue into its 120th year and celebrate its magnificent history. We will celebrate the year from 24th April with an eclectic mix of outstanding music, comedy and sporting events befitting to the Olympia’s rich history.”

Opening in April 1905, the prestigious Grade II-listed building was designed by renowned architect Frank Matcham and was taken over by the Zorba family in 1990. The independently owned venue has been revitalised by its current owners, who made sure to retain its original features. Thanks to the Zorba family the venue has remained engrained in Liverpool’s cultural fabric and has been given a new lease of life with new seats in the lower balcony, a redressed stage and enhanced backstage facilities. 

The anniversary show will honour the venue’s cultural heritage and the legendary acts that have walked through its doors. Tickets for the birthday show are available for:

Pre sale at 10am on Monday 3rd February: https://bit.ly/embracepresale

General sale 10am Wednesday 5th February: https://bit.ly/embracegeneral

Fans are encouraged to secure tickets early, as this historic event is anticipated to sell out quickly. 

The spirit of the Olympia, like that of the city’s community, has always been to celebrate independence, embrace change and be at the forefront of culture and entertainment in the city providing artists with a unique backdrop to create a once in a lifetime experience for their fans. 

Over decades, the venue has evolved to meet the ever-changing tastes of audiences, becoming a beloved landmark for locals and visitors alike. Join them as they honour the legacy of the Liverpool Olympia and celebrate 120 years of music history in the heart of the city. 

 

A new month-long celebration of Liverpool’s arts, culture and visitor attractions will see exclusive offers, special events and an opportunity to experience the city’s world-beating offer. Must-See Month is organised by Liverpool BID Company and will run from 17th February to 17 March.

Starting at half term holiday and running until St Patrick’s Day, Liverpool’s cultural organisations are signing up to provide a month-long programme of offers and events. The Must-See VIP Pass will invite people to collect three stamps from participating venues to unlock exclusive perks, including early access to future activities and a variety of offers.

Offers include:

• 25% off The Beatles Story
• Exclusive guided tours at some of Liverpool’s best loved venues such at St George’s Hall and Royal Court Theatre
• 20% off M&S Bank Arena shows*
• 25% off City Tours
• 25% off Liverpool Philharmonic shows*
• Guide backstage tours at the Royal Court
• 20% off Liverpool Wheel tickets
• FACT Exhibitions and opening event
• Use exclusive codes to unlock free drinks, ticket discounts and children go free at the British Music Experience
• Free street theatre tours with ArtsGroupie
• Family activities at Tate
• Tours and collection focus at the Walker Art Gallery, Museum of Liverpool and World Museum

Plus, visitors who get three stamps on their VIP Pass, can unlock even more offers and events (like 241 tickets and more!). Visitors can grab a pass from any partaking venue.

Katie Bentley is Director of Strategic Partnerships and Communications at Liverpool BID Company.

“After the success of Restaurant Week in 2024, we wanted to explore how we can celebrate the vibrant cultural offer in Liverpool and shine a spotlight on activity taking place. Liverpool’s major museums, theatres and cultural attractions sit within a BID area, which means we have this opportunity to showcase the theatre, visual art, performance, music and more that happens in the heart of the city. There will be a programme of offers and events, all designed to encourage people to try something new or to visit a place they might not have experienced before”.

See the list of offers here www.mustseemonth.com

Liverpool-based The Reader is welcoming back dual-heritage author Jacqueline Roy to talk about two of her groundbreaking novels exploring issues of mental health and identity affecting black, British-born women post-Windrush.

The Manchester-based writer (The Gosling Girl) will be In Conversation at the home of national Shared Reading charity in Calderstones Park on Saturday 8 February, 2pm – 4pm, to discuss The Fat Lady Sings and her latest novel, In Memory of Us, published in 2024.

A tender and deeply moving depiction of mental health, The Fat Lady Sings is a striking portrait of two black women – one in their 20s; the other in her 50s – as they navigate life on a London psychiatric ward.

It was one of 13 novels relaunched as part of the Black Britain: Writing Back series curated by Booker-winning author Bernardine Evaristo to address the ‘historical bias in publishing’ working with Hamish Hamilton at Penguin Random House.

Jacqueline, who was a guest speaker at The Reader’s Gravity literary festival in 2022, said: “It’s been such an important project to be part of, and I’ve particularly enjoyed sharing a platform with some of the other writers in the series – especially Judith Bryan and Nicola Williams. We’ve had such interesting discussions.

“The re-publication of The Fat Lady Sings was a form of validation too, which has been great for my confidence as a writer. It was very unexpected. Once a book goes out of print, you tend to think it’s over and done with, so it was very exciting to revisit it and to think it would be read once more.”

The novel was also picked by staff and volunteers as part of The Reader Bookshelf 2024/25, a curated annual collection of books for adults and children based on a different theme. This year’s theme is Wonder.

Jacqueline said: “I love visiting The Reader. It’s such a warm, inviting place and books and reading are really valued here so it feels special.

“I feel very honoured that The Fat Lady Sings has been selected. Big thanks to all involved. Wonder has more than one meaning. To wonder is to question, and in The Fat Lady Sings, Gloria, one of two central characters, constantly questions the way she is treated.

“She questions authority and challenges the people who dehumanize her and the other patients on the psychiatric ward.”

Jacqueline revealed that she first wanted to tell this story after attending a black writers’ conference in the 1990s.

She said: “One of the speakers, who was roughly my age, said that he didn’t know a single black person of his generation who hadn’t either been in prison or in a psychiatric hospital. He asked where the books were that spoke of those experiences.

“As I had spent time in a psychiatric hospital myself, I thought I was well placed to write such a book, and The Fat Lady Sings became my first novel for adults.

“Because it was very much a work of fiction rather than an autobiographical novel, it wasn’t too difficult for me to write it. The main thing I grappled with was wanting to present the characters in a way that was respectful and restored humanity to the experience of being categorised as a psychiatric patient.

“It seemed very important to show the dignity, the resilience and the fortitude of people who find themselves in such circumstances, so it felt like a big responsibility.”

Jacqueline, a former lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University specialising in black literature and creative writing, left to concentrate on writing fiction and has also written several children’s books.

Her latest novel In Memory of Us has been well-received by UK literary critics and offers an insight into life as a black Briton post-Windrush.

She said: “The Black Britain: Writing Back series was created through the recognition that it was very difficult for black people of my generation to be published and when we were, the books didn’t stay in print for long.

“This has meant that experiences of being black and British-born, growing up in the 1950s and 60s, haven’t been explored in fiction very much at all.

“I wanted to produce a novel that addressed this, so I wrote In Memory of Us, which is about twin sisters, who are part of the post-Windrush generation. It spans 70 years and looks at some of the changes that have taken place in that time.”

Jamie Barton, Bookshop and Literary Activity Manager at The Reader, said: “It’s the brilliant Jacqueline Roy’s second visit to The Reader and we can’t wait to talk to her about The Fat Lady Sings – a wonderful and much loved title from our Wonder bookshelf – and hear all about her latest book, In Memory of Us.”

In Conversation with Jacqueline Roy at Calderstones Park, Liverpool, will take place on Saturday 8 February at 2pm. Running time: two hours. Tickets are £9 for members and £10 full price. To book visit here.

A free Shared Reading workshop on The Fat Lady Sings will be held at 1pm before the event. To book visit here

The first acts to be announced for Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2025 are headliner Sam Fender, plus Myles Smith, Wet Leg, Blossoms and Lola Young (following her debut UK #1 with ‘Messy’ as announced on Radio 1’s Official Chart).

Over the course of the weekend, around 100 acts will take to the stage, from the biggest artists in the world to exciting new and emerging artists, performing across four stages: Radio 1 Main Stage, Radio 1 New Music Stage, Radio 1 Dance and BBC Introducing. With over 100,000 music fans expected to attend, the event promises to be an unforgettable music spectacular.

Radio 1’s Big Weekend, the station’s flagship live music event, kicks off the UK’s festival season by bringing some of the biggest UK and international artists to cities that may not otherwise host such a large scale event. From Taylor Swift in Norwich, Miley Cyrus in Middlesbrough, Stormzy in Exeter, Lana Del Rey in Hull, Ed Sheeran in Coventry, Bruno Mars in Derry/Londonderry, The 1975 in Dundee, and Sabrina Carpenter in Luton, music fans around the UK have seen superstar acts perform on their doorsteps.

Further information about Radio 1’s Big Weekend 2025, including headliners and full line-up and ticketing details will be announced on Radio 1 in the coming months.

Event Date: Friday 23 May 2025 – Sunday 25 May 2025

Location: Sefton Park, Liverpool L17

Are you concerned about someone who is at risk of radicalisation?

If so, get in touch with the council’s Prevent Safeguarding Team to discuss your concerns. They can support vulnerable people and prevent them from being drawn into extremism or terrorism as part of the UK Government Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

They will contact you to discuss your concerns within three days. This might involve them completing a referral to enable them to share information with their partners and start the safeguarding process. This will ensure they provide the most appropriate help and support.

Prevent resources are available to all here: https://liverpool.gov.uk/communities-and-safety/crime-and-safety/prevent/

 

CHAMPS have launched new Kind to Your Mind website, built exclusively to support people living and working in Cheshire and Merseyside with a range of services and resources on offer.

Designed to support people of all ages with their mental health and wellbeing, the Kind to Your Mind website gives access to a range of mental health and wellbeing services and resources including tips, advice, apps and online courses.

The site is now live and can be accessed via www.kindtoyourmind.org

This exciting partnership will feature a redisplay of the Nahua Codex, Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca Codex (Codex Fejérváry Mayer), a rare pre-colonial Mexican manuscript and one of fewer than 15 surviving pre-colonial codices from Mexico.

National Museums Liverpool was one of several successful awardees for the recent round of Esmée Fairbairn Collections Funding, which will facilitate “Cuerpos del Tiempo (Bodies of Time)”, a partnership project with Luma Creations to work with the Latin American communities in the North West with the aim to reshape the interpretation of the Latin American collections at World Museum for display in 2025-26.

Based in Liverpool, Luma Creations are the leading Latin American and diversity arts and culture organisation in the North of England. Luma will lead on reaching out and engaging these diverse communities through a program of varied events, in addition to assisting the Global Cultures team at World Museum to ensure the stories that communities want to see are represented in their gallery and collections.

Francisco Carrasco, CEO and Creative Director at LUMA Creations:

“As the leading Latin American arts and culture organisation in the North, we at Luma Creations have a responsibility to aim high and challenge ourselves to create a platform for our local and regional communities, championing and promoting them in the most positive and supportive way possible.

We always aim to push the boundaries and present work that represents the rich diversity of Latin America, continuously respecting the many cultures and identities of the continent.

This fundamentally important collaboration with the World Museum will enable us to reach out, and bring forward the many voices of Latin American communities engaged with the project, enabling us to work alongside the Global Cultures team to ensure that when we re-imagine the exhibition, we change the narrative so there is a real sense of ownership, accompanied with personal stories, understanding and a true sense of being valued and heard.”

This co-produced project will feature a redisplay of the Amoxtli Tezcatlipoca Codex (Codex Fejérváry Mayer) (M12014), meaning “The Book of the Smoking Mirror” in Nahuatl, one of fewer than 15 surviving pre-colonial codices from Mexico and is rarely displayed due to its fragility.

On display at World Museum late 2025, this artefact dating back from before 1521, stands as a powerful symbol of cultural endurance and indigenous heritage.

Meghan Backhouse, Lead Curator of Global Cultures at World Museum:

“The Global Cultures team is thrilled to be partnering with Luma Creations on Cuerpos del Tiempo. In addition to their deep connections to the diverse Latin American communities of the north west and their vast experience in community engagement using the arts, they have huge enthusiasm for unleashing the stories held within the World Museum collections. And they are not afraid of challenging us, both professionally and institutionally, to see things from different perspectives and work in different ways.

The displays of material cultural heritage from South and Central America are not only out-of-date but lack any sense of the vitality or diversity of the many cultures found in those regions – or in diaspora in the UK. We are so excited to have this opportunity to hand the reigns over, and to highlight more of Liverpool’s incredible cultural diversity.”

This exciting partnership kicks off with a free celebration launch open to all at World Museum on Saturday 15^th February. Expect a lively day filled with inspiring talks, electrifying dance and live music performances, hands-on craft workshops, and opportunities to connect directly with the curators of the Global Collections and the amazing team from Luma Creations.

On Saturday 15^th March visitors can experience a stunning showcase of Indigenous clothing and costume from across all regions of Mexico with ‘Hilvanando Culturas (Weaving Cultures)’. The show will be narrated in Spanish by collector Magaly Flores. Live English translation will be provided by Francisco Carrasco of Luma Creations.

Don’t miss this celebrating culture and community!

Further information about both events can be found below:

Launch of ‘Cuerpos del Tiempo’ (Bodies of Time) | National Museums Liverpool.

ECFC Event: Hilvanando Culturas (Weaving Cultures) | National Museums Liverpool

 

From Friday 21 February to Sunday 11 May, FACT presents two compelling exhibitions by artists Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Bahar Noorizadeh. The exhibitions invite visitors to explore the intersection of media, technology, and global politics, with Christopher Kulendran Thomas showcasing a major new body of work, Safe Zone, alongside a reimagined staging of Bahar Noorizadeh’s film Free to Choose.

Within these powerful exhibitions, the artists encourage audiences to reconsider their relationship with politics, technology, economics, and societal structures while reflecting on how momentous events have shaped the world as we understand it today.

Christopher Kulendran Thomas’s work explores the legacies of imperialism. A British artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, Kulendran Thomas has been using artificial intelligencentechnologies over the last decade to examine the foundational fictions of Western individualism. His new exhibition, Safe Zone, features two bodies of work that metabolise the historical mediums of soft power: a series of paintings and a video work that auto-edits television footage. The exhibition at FACT marks the work’s UK premiere.

At the centre of this exhibition is Peace Core (2024), a new work co-commissioned by FACT in partnership with WIELS and Artspace Sydney, and produced with Kulendran Thomas’ long-term collaborator, Annika Kuhlmann. The rotating sphere sculpture consists of 24-screens that transmit a continuous stream of television footage broadcast in the moments before channels cut live to the unfolding events of 11 September 2001. Peace Core employs an artificial intelligence algorithm to continuously edit over 24,000 clips into an infinitely evolving sequence, accompanied by a soundscape that keeps remixing thesounds and music broadcast that morning on American television. It draws on the visual language of #corecore, an internet aesthetic combining seemingly unrelated videos, images, and soundbites to evoke a shared emotional response to the overwhelming nature of contemporary existence.

With this exhibition, Kulendran Thomas asks audiences to reflect on the overlooked connections stemming from the global geopolitical shifts triggered by the ‘War on Terror’, in which unrelated independence movements were rebranded as terrorist organisations following the 9/11 attacks on the United States. This rhetoric provided the Sri Lankan government with justification for ‘counterterrorism’ measures in the Tamil homeland of Eelam. Previously a self-governed independent state that Kulendran Thomas’s family is from, these measures led to the Mullivaikkal Massacre in 2009.

Illuminated by the glow of Peace Core is a series of new paintings that use AI-generated images to imagine these events. Abstracting the work of early Sri Lankan modernists, the images are composed using a neural network trained on the colonial art history that was first brought to Sri Lanka by European settlers. The largest painting in the series shares its dimensions with Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. While Picasso’s masterpiece depicted the widely reported horrors of the massacre in Guernica during The Spanish Civil War, the events at Mullivaikkal remained largely undocumented due to the expulsion of foreign journalists. With no outside witnesses to the atrocities in Mullivaikkal, Kulendran Thomas’ paintings are imagined through a networked collective consciousness of other events
represented across art history and rendered in the visual language of the colonial history that could itself be seen as a pretext for that violence.

FACT and The Otolith Collective are proud to present the UK premiere of Bahar Noorizadeh’s Free to Choose (2023), produced in collaboration with animator Ruda Babau and the experimental opera group Waste Paper Opera, and commissioned by the Singapore Art Museum. Bahar Noorizadeh is a UK-based artist, theorist, and filmmaker whose work explores speculation, finance, neoliberalism, fiction, the weird, and the unknown. Noorizadeh describes Free to Choose as a “financial science-fiction opera” or “fi-fi opera” that depicts the credit system of the future as a Central Time Travel Agency, regulating time travel between Hong Kong circa 1997 and Hong Kong in 2047. The title references the 15-part television series starring economist Milton Friedman, broadcast in the US in 1980.
Free to Choose pushes Friedman’s praise of Hong Kong as a ‘free market utopia’ that will ‘set an example for the rest of the world’ to a delirious and absurdist extreme vision of a financialised future.

Free to Choose draws on Noorizadeh’s extensive research on Milton Friedman, Michel Feher, and Rem Koolhaas. It brings together a luminous world of a vivid and disorienting future megacity and a cast of unpredictable inhabitants with a playful script and dream-like
plot. The narrative follows Philip Tose, the former racing car driver and CEO of Hong Kong-based Peregrine Investment, as he attempts to survive and surpass the 1997 economic crash by borrowing a lump sum from his older self in Hong Kong in 2047. In his
search for his future self, Tose encounters the hierarchies that divide a future world where rating activists demand free time travel for all and credit Untrustworthies navigate the floating cities of the Pearl Megalopolis.

Alongside the exhibition, FACT and The Otolith Collective are delighted to present a public programme series that further explores Noorizadeh’s practice. A programme highlight is the UK premiere of the audiovisual performance Admiror, Or Revolutionary Sentiments.

Following performances at the Bergen Senter for Elektronisk Kunst and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Admiror, Or Revolutionary Sentiments takes place at the Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, on Friday 21 February 2025. Admiror, Or Revolutionary Sentiments stages an opposition between the sentimental logic of liberalism and the feelings that propel liberation. The work is produced in collaboration with opera maker Klara Kofen, with drums and sound design by composer Cameron Graham and CGI design and animation from Ruda Babau.

Maitreyi Maheshwari, Head of Programme at FACT, said: “In light of recent political, social and economic upheavals, it feels urgent to reflect on how events of the recent past have shaped the world we live in today. How do we recognise the moments when the world
changes, and what is the aftermath of such large-scale global events within different local contexts? The works of Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Bahar Noorizadeh bear witness to the interconnectedness of economic ideologies and political rhetoric, using new digital media technologies to reimagine the unseen stories of the specific impacts these systems of power have on people, places and times we ordinarily see as disparate.”

The multi award-winning children’s book author and screenwriter, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, hosts ‘The Reading Rights Summit’ at Liverpool’s iconic St George’s Hall on 22 January as part of his tenure as the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2024-2026). 

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024–2026, said:

“Working with BookTrust in these first six months of my Laureateship I’ve visited lots of early years settings and seen astonishingly brilliant practice. I understand now – more than ever – just how urgent it is that we re-reset the conversation about reading. To use a government phrase: ‘de-silo reading’.  Yes, it’s important for educational attainment. Yes, DCMS, it’s the most crucial – and most democratic – part of our cultural heritage. Shared reading is an effective, economic health intervention, so yes, it’s essential, Wes Streeting, to mental health, to bonding, to attachment, to creating a situation where parents and carers can give the best, the most joyous start in life to our children.

“New research from BookTrust demonstrates this urgent need for support: 6 in 10 parents and carers of 0–7-year-olds wish they had known earlier just how important it is to read and share stories regularly with their children, and wish they had started doing so sooner. Our children are near the top of the global leagues when it comes to the mechanical skill of reading but near the bottom when it comes to ’reading for pleasure’. We’ve taught them all the steps and the names of all the tunes. But they’re not dancing. That our children seem to be experiencing some kind of happiness recession at the moment is not surprising, and I believe that the decline in reading too has played its part in this.

“That’s why, as Children’s Laureate, I’ve worked with BookTrust to create this summit – together, we are going to discuss, share, challenge and develop our expertise and experiences. Together, we will develop a report that will help ensure the transformative gift of reading is shared with every single child. Because this is so, so doable but the longer we wait to address invisible privilege and inequality, the worse this becomes – more and more children fall further behind.”

About ‘The Reading Rights Summit’

‘The Reading Rights Summit’ – which is organised in partnership with the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, BookTrust, who manage the Laureateship – forms a key part of Cottrell-Boyce’s ‘Reading Rights: Books Build a Brighter Future’ campaign, which he launched on appointment as Children’s Laureate in July 2024.

Cottrell-Boyce aims to address ‘invisible privilege and inequality’ within books and reading, so that every child – from their earliest years – has access to the transformative ways in which they improve long-term life chances.  

The day-long summit – the first of its kind led by a Children’s Laureate – will bring together high-profile, expert voices in the political, education, literacy, early years, arts and health sectors with a view to recommending an urgent course of action to policymakers that will help ensure that the ‘life-changing benefits of children’s reading are taken seriously’.

‘The Reading Rights Summit’ programme is divided into three key areas for improvement, identified by Cottrell-Boyce and BookTrust following a learning tour to early learning centres, nurseries, schools and family hubs across the UK. Summit speakers will call on the UK government to deliver on the following policy asks:

The best start in life: “We want to normalise sharing stories as part of the best start in life for every child, with midwives, health visitors and other early years professionals introducing reading to all families.”

This will be opened by a provocation from Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, followed by a panel chaired by Julie Hayward, Director of Partnerships, BookTrust with speakers including:

–          Anna Hartley, Executive Director of Public Health, Barnsley Council

–          Dr Sam Wass, Director, Institute for the Science of Early Years, University of East London

–          Cressida Cowell, best-selling author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon series and former Children’s Laureate (2019-2022)

Nurseries and schools: “We want nurseries and schools to be equipped and supported so that sharing books and stories is at the heart of early education for every child.”

This will be opened by a provocation from Michael Rosen, best-selling author, Professor of Children’s Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London, and former Children’s Laureate (2007-2009), followed by a panel chaired by – –Ruthann Hughes, Director of Research and Impact, BookTrust with speakers including:

–          Neil Leitch, Chief Executive, Early Years Alliance

–          Dr Julian Grenier, Senior Content & Engagement Manager, Education Endowment Foundation

–          Sonia Thompson, Headteacher, St. Matthew’s C.E. Primary Research and Support School

Families and communities: “We want all families and communities, including those experiencing vulnerability, to be supported to make reading and storytelling part of daily life.” 

This was opened by a provocation from Alex McCormick, Spellow Library fundraiser, followed by a panel chaired by Annie Crombie, Deputy CEO, BookTrust, with speakers including:

–          Sarah Thomas, CEO, Fostering Network

–          Lucy Peake, CEO, Kinship

–          Ruth Terry, Executive Director, Social Care & Practise, Bradford Children and Families Trust

–          Sally Pearse, Strategic Lead for Early Years and Director, Sheffield Hallam University

Rachel De Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, closed the summit with a keynote speech, and former Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell (2015-2017) commemorated the day with special ‘behind the scenes’ live illustrations.

Diana Gerald MBE, CEO of BookTrust, said: “Sadly, too many children from low-income families don’t get the start in life they deserve. However, we know that early years experiences that include shared reading can change this and are critical to giving children the best start in life. Reading regularly with a child from the earliest moments in childhood has a measurable impact on their development and wellbeing and helps children overcome disadvantages caused by inequalities. That’s why BookTrust partnered with over 4,700 early years settings last year to provide high-quality shared reading support for families.

“But there is much more to be done. There must now be urgent investment in quality provision that places child development at the heart of the early years system so that the benefits of early reading and the magic of sharing stories can be experienced by every family, in every community. There has never been a more urgent time for us to inspire a new generation of children on their reading journeys.”

A report summarising key learnings and policy recommendations from ‘The Reading Rights Summit’ will be published by BookTrust in spring 2025.

Further information on Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2024-2026, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, is here.

Five new shows and exhibitions have been announced for the upcoming Liverpool International Jazz Festival 2025 next month.

The four-day extravaganza of music, film and visual art across city venues, which is now in its 12th year, will take place from Thursday 20th February through until Sunday 23rd February and will once again feature some of the world’s most talented artists in the genre.

First in the latest wave of events is The Shapes of Jazz To Come – a solo exhibition of work by Liverpool-based artist and musician Bob Whittaker. Anyone visiting the Capstone Building Reception throughout February will be presented with paintings that start with a fragment or opening theme of a song. Musical notes are precisely measured into geometric shapes, creating a visual mirror of the auditory experience. Pitch, rhythm, and expression of the music are translated into angular forms with a predominantly monochromatic palette consistent with musicians’ manuscript.

On Thursday 20th February at 7:30pm, the son of legendary jazz musician and composer Dave Brubeck, Darius Brubeck will lead the London-based Darius Brubeck Quartet, which has been together for 15 years and tours internationally.

The group features saxophonist Dave O’Higgins, who has been described by The Jazz Guide as “A stunning player in the neo-bop vein, with an apparently effortless flow of coherent ideas, beautiful time and a highly developed harmonic sense”; bassist Matt Ridley, a graduate of Trinity College of Music London and a well-known sideman and band leader on the UK Jazz scene; and South African drummer, educator and composer Wesley Gibbens.

The following afternoon on Friday at 1pm will see a screening of Playing the Changes – Tracking Darius Brubeck, a film about what it is like to grow up as a jazz musician in a turbulent time of racial segregation in the US and political tension during the Cold War, and about applying these experiences to living and teaching in segregated South Africa. The feature examines how jazz had such a transformative role in different societies like (post-)Soviet Poland and Nelson Mandela’s South Africa, where jazz was present, but disowned through apartheid.

Following the screening there’s a Q&A with Darius, his wife Cathy and director Michiel ten Kleij.

The Friday evening will see a performance from a ‘wild and exhilarating’ blend of top UK musicians from various generations, for whom Swiss drummer and percussionist Florian Arbenz has tailor-made his newest project.

Throughout his nearly 30-year musical career, Arbenz has consistently demonstrated that he’s not only a brilliant drummer but also has a keen sense for unique and gripping combinations of musicians and instruments. In his latest project, he turns his attention to the musical connections he’s formed during his frequent visits to the UK.

From the rising star Immy Churchill to internationally renowned musicians like Percy Pursglove, Jim Hart, and Ivo Neame, and the legendary veteran Christy Doran, five illustrious British musicians contribute to Arbenz’s supergroup.

Friday night will also see Parrjazz present their Mutant Jazz night at Rough Trade on Hanover Street. The ever-popular event celebrates the emerging talent from across Liverpool’s live jazz spectrum, exposing them to new audiences.

Mutant Jazz #6 will feature: Lydia Reece and her band, Finite Experience, The Unstoppable Sweeties Show. Early doors will see some of Liverpool’s youngest Jazz Mutant Allstar players, 14-18 years old, improvising with the Parrjazz house band. DJ Copious Notes will be spinning jazzy vinyl all night.

On the afternoon of Saturday 22nd February at 1pm, the festival joins forces with Liverpool’s South Asian arts company, Milap for a captivating afternoon of music featuring the extraordinary talents of Rekesh Chauhan and Kousic Sen.

Chauhan, a multi-award-winning British pianist and composer, is celebrated for his versatility in both Indian and Western classical traditions. His performances have graced some of the world’s most prestigious stages, and he has collaborated with legendary artists such as Pt. Birju Maharaj and Mercury Prize-winner Talvin Singh.

In Milap’s Beyond Roots, Rekesh will be joined by internationally renowned tabla maestro Kousic Sen. Together, they will explore the dynamic intersection of Indian classical music and jazz, blending tradition with contemporary innovation.

Three free concerts will then take place at The Cornerstone Theatre on Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus, with support from Arts Council England.

At 3:30pm The Weave return to the Liverpool jazz scene after a hiatus of some 7 years. Their newest album, SNISHOO, sees these talented musicians return to create an exciting collaborative journey. At the heart of this musical endeavour is band leader Martin Smith, who has assembled a network of Liverpool’s top players: Anthony Peers (trumpet), Anthony Ormesher (guitar), Tilo Pirnbaum (drums), Rob Stringer (piano) and Hugo “Harry” Harrison (double bass).

Then at 4:45pm, audiences can witness The Return of Samjoko – a new project formed by Liverpool based saxophonist Bob Whittaker, drawing influences from the modal and free 1970s supergroups of Elvin Jones, Ornette Coleman, Ed Blackwell, Dewey Redman and Don Cherry, the band employs saxophone, two double basses and two drum kits.

The final of the three free Saturday night concerts sees Sweet Beans take the stage at 6pm.

The self-proclaimed ‘riot-jazz’ band from Liverpool have been consistently performing and gigging around the city since early 2019. Stylistically, the music is a combination of raucous big-band horns, jazzy harmonies, rocking electric guitar and rhythms rooted in techno and other dance music styles.

Then, on Saturday evening, the festival will welcome Neil Cowley Trio onto the Capstone Theatre stage, returning to the scene after a break of 7 years with their new album ‘Entity’.

As a young boy, Cowley studied classical music and by the age of 10 had performed a Shostakovich piano concerto to a full house at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. By his mid-teens he had turned his back on his classical career entering the world of old-school R’n’B, soul and funk and working with some of the most successful bands of the day including the Brand New Heavies and Zero 7 alongside his own chill-out production duo, Fragile State.

The trio went on to record six highly acclaimed studio albums – Displaced (2006) winner of the 2007 BBC Jazz Award for Best Album; Loud… Louder… Stop (2008) hailed by Mojo as a ‘modern classic’, Radio Silence (2010), cementing Cowley’s credentials as a brilliant, dazzling composer; The Face of Mount Molehill (2012) with a string ensemble that earned them the 2013 Jazz FM award for Best UK Jazz Act and Touch and Flee (2014), described by Cowley as his ‘concert hall album’.

For those wanting to party on into the night, Liverpool International Jazz Festival is collaborating with Parrjazz and one of Liverpool’s coolest small venues, Commune.

Starting at 9pm and finishing around midnight, Commune will be hosting a vinyl DJ set selecting tunes from the broad jazz spectrum of jazz fusion, hip-hop, acid jazz, funk and ska.

Featuring the Mutant Jazz and Cali Discs couple, DJ Copious Notes and JabJazz, with their Jazz But Not As We Know It record box.

Sunday 23rd February is Liverpool Sax Day – a day-long event kicking off at 10am in the Cornerstone Building at Liverpool Hope University’s Creative Campus. The day will feature workshops, masterclasses, performances from UK sax star Emma Rawicz and also from the North’s leading jazz tenor player and educator Dean Masser.

Those attending are encouraged to bring their saxophones and join in the ensemble classes hosted by prolific international sax expert and composer Andy Scott, and also peruse and try out all the latest sax models and paraphernalia at the many trade stalls. Liverpool Sax Day ticket holders also get free admission to the Emma Rawicz Quartet’s evening concert in the Capstone Theatre, the final concert of Liverpool International Jazz Festival 2025.

The Sunday afternoon of the festival will also see internationally acclaimed jazz pianist Dorian Ford celebrate the 50th anniversary of Keith Jarrett’s legendary improvised 1975 Köln Concert with a unique performance.

Reaching back through time he blends his passion for Jarrett’s brilliant original with his own improvisations, Ford’s riffs and grooves re-igniting the spark of genius of the young Jarrett. The original live recording is still the best-selling solo piano album in history in both classical and jazz.

Closing the festival on the evening of Sunday 23rd February at 7:30pm will be the award winning young saxophonist and composer, Emma Rawicz.

Rawicz is a bandleader with an astonishing musical maturity. At just 22 years of age, she has achieved a huge amount, including the release of two critically acclaimed albums Incantation and Chroma and extensive headline tours across 15 countries.

She has appeared in high profile festivals and venues including concerts featuring as a soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and with the German SWR Radio Big Band at a sold out Berlin Philharmonie. She was the youngest ever Artist in Residence at Cambridge Jazz Festival and has received a number of awards and nominations recognising her achievements.

After a record year in 2024, Liverpool International Jazz Festival is back in 2025 with another exciting line up featuring some of the world’s leading jazz musicians. Individual event tickets start at just £5.50, whereas full festival bundle tickets are just £65.45.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS INCLUDING THE FULL FESTIVAL BUNDLE PACKAGE