A Celebration of Scottish Folk Music
Celebrating the Music Room’s rich history of championing folk music – and continuing our tour of incredible traditional music from across the home nations – we’re heading north of the border. This afternoon, we’re welcoming back some of Scotland’s finest folk artists – the multi award-winning RURA and, appearing in the Music Room for the fifth time, Siobhan Miller.
A Celebration of Welsh Folk Music
In every corner of Britain, there are tales to be told – and great folk artists ready to tell them through song. Here in the Music Room, we have a proud folk music tradition, and so as part of our tenth anniversary celebrations we’re shining a spotlight on folk musicians from across the home nations, celebrating their countries and their music. First up, we welcome three captivating Welsh artists – VRï, Cerys Hafana and 9Bach – back to the Music Room.
Please note that this is a standing event. If you have any access needs, please contact the Box Office on 0151 709 3789.
Over the last decade, we’ve worked closely with cultural groups from across the city to bring a whole world of music to our stage. One of those key partnerships has been with LUMA Creations – an organisation that showcases the vibrancy and spirit of Latin America. Now, LUMA is celebrating 50 years since its founders came to Liverpool as refugees, and of course it’s our tenth anniversary too, so we know they’ll be bringing a real party…
Tonight, LUMA returns to the Music Room with La Feria Festival for the third year running, bringing with them a powerful evening of musical innovation and cultural connection, as the acclaimed Antonio Monasterio Ensamble makes their UK debut.
Legendary musician and broadcaster Tom Robinson has become a bit of a regular in the Music Room over the years, bringing much anticipated shows to our stage every year. So, of course, we had to have him back – now for the fourth time – as part of our anniversary celebrations, and he’s bringing a real treat of an evening.
Tom Robinson presents an evening of songs and stories from fifty years wandering the wilder shores of the record industry. Classic hits such as ‘War Baby’, ‘Up Against The Wall’, and ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ rub shoulders with a Radio 1 ban for being ‘Glad To be Gay’, rocking against racism with The Clash, writing songs with Elton John, headlining Glasto with Peter Gabriel, drug smuggling in East Germany, two nervous breakdowns and a year in tabloid hell after falling in love with a woman. Plus fan favourites from his vast back catalogue, spanning Café Society in 1975 to his acclaimed 2015 comeback album, Only The Now.
Ian Prowse’s Monday Club at the Cavern is the stuff of legend, and Ian himself is a legend in the Music Room. So it only makes sense that we combine the two as part of our Music Room 10 celebrations. Ian Prowse – the Music Room’s most frequent performer – joins us to present a curated showcase of some of his favourite artists in a very special edition of the Monday Club.
By Abbie Billington
Liverpool Biennial returns this summer once again showcasing cutting-edge contemporary visual art across the city region. Running alongside it is the Independents Biennial, with 22 newly commissioned works by 64 artists. Independents Biennial sets out to highlight the incredible work of the city’s grassroots artists, an integral part of the backbone of Liverpool’s creative scene.
Independent galleries and Liverpool’s creative networks are placed into the spotlight, as artists are given a chance to make a name for themselves in the UK’s largest and longest-running free festival of art, as well as celebrating Liverpool’s creativity and cultural significance.
What makes the Independents Biennial truly special is its commitment to non-traditional spaces. Art isn’t just confined to galleries – the festival utilises all spaces to showcase its artists work, including Hilbre Island off the coast of the Wirral, Belle Vale shopping centre and empty units in St Helens town centre. It celebrates the versatility of art, and how artists can use any space and turn anything into phenomenal, thought-provoking pieces of art.
Independents Biennial will span each of Liverpool’s six boroughs, with each location offering something unique and inspirational. Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral, St Helens, Halton and Liverpool city centre will host these 64 independent artists and provide them and their work with a home for the summer.
While the entire programme promises to be unforgettable, we’ve picked out a few exhibitions that are especially worth checking out…
You won’t want to miss The Right Map by Ghost Art School, a collective that exists between margins and creates art that challenges the conventions of traditional institutions. The Right Map is described as “a constellation of art exhibitions across Liverpool, unfolding under the banner of the Independents Biennial.” It brings together a series of exhibitions across the city region, including UNSTABLE in Port Sunlight, In Search of Swallows and Amazons in Kensington, Account in Birkenhead, and Slipstream on Blundell Street in the city centre.
Building on this theme of place and disruption, Tom Stockley and Ruaíri Valentine bring their deep dive into Wirral psychogeography to the festival with Weird Wirral. Inspired by a gothic poem, the duo turns to folklore and legend, guiding us through the shorelines and landscapes of the Wirral to uncover traces of magic and forgotten stories hidden in the land.
Meanwhile, at the Victoria Gallery, Claire Beerjeraz offers a powerful reflection on the legacies of colonialism and slavery. Their multidisciplinary exhibition explores how these histories are displayed, contained, and remembered within institutional spaces. With a tapestry of spoken word and clay, Claire weaves together personal and collective memory, urging us to look beneath the surface of memorials and museum walls—and to reimagine how art institutions can hold space for difficult truths.
In another standout piece, artist Amy Flynn invites us to consider the legacy of our modern waste through Technofossils—human-made objects and materials that will persist in the geological record for millions of years. Her pewter cast sculptures are deliberately alluring at first glance: sparkling gemstones and shiny metals entice the viewer in. But look closer, and you’ll find the contours of outdated mobile phones and discarded plastic food containers—rubbish masquerading as treasure. This journey through desire and disgust mimics the cycle of consumerism, exploring themes of duality: artificial/organic, worthless/precious, temporary/permanent, growth/decay.
Explore Liverpool’s history through a cosmic lens in this bold, multi-part project that blends astrology, storytelling, and live art. Back in 1639, Toxteth-born astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks became the first person to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun—a pivotal moment in the history of astronomy. In astrology, Venus is associated with beauty and creativity, and this project asks how these Venusian themes have helped shape Liverpool’s identity across the centuries. This is part one of a collaboration between Independents Biennial and the Museum of Liverpool’s Global City series—and promises to be an unforgettable deep dive into the city’s star-studded past and artistic present.
Independents Biennial will take place across Liverpool from 7 June to 14 September 2025. This year’s festival is already shaping up to be one of the most exciting yet. With so much to explore, experience, and be inspired by, Independents Biennial is a must for anyone looking to make the most of the city’s creative summer—it’s definitely at the top of our plans!
Visit independentsbiennial.com/events to explore the latest announcements, event details, and artist highlights.
Liverpool Bach Collective was formed in 2013, with the aim of putting on performances of J S Bach’s cantatas in churches in and around Liverpool every month as part of Sunday Evensong or Vespers. The cantatas chosen are based on, or are at least relevant to, the readings of the day in the churches visited.
The Collective usually consists of eight singers and an ensemble of around ten players, generally strings, oboes, bassoon and organ; the ensemble is enlarged when the music demands it. The performers are a mix of professional, semi-professional and amateur musicians, all of whom have a love for the music of Bach and are united in their passion and their commitment in performing these wonderful works.
As the Collective’s season began, so it ends, with a cantata of general praise as the Collective’s contribution to this year’s Prescot Festival. In this festive work, to the usual instrumental ensemble, four vocal soloists and chorus, are added three trumpets and timpani.
By the end of the current season, the Collective will have given eighty-one cantata performances, involving sixty-six different cantatas in forty-three churches, from Hightown to Rainhill and Ince Blundell to Birkenhead. The ensemble continues to enlarge its following of interested listeners.
St Mary’s Church (Prescot Parish Church)
Church Street
Prescot
L34 1LA
Admission: Free on the door
The Sandbox Showcase: A Night of Short Films & Creative Community
Step into the world of short film and retro nostalgia at the Sandbox Showcase. A unique 90s-themed evening hosted by Let’s Make Films, spotlighting the best emerging filmmaking voices from Liverpool & the North West.
Taking place at Picturehouse @ FACT on Tuesday, 20th May, the night is part film screening, part creative hangout and fully focused on community, fun and discovery.
From 4:30, we’re transforming the bar area into a vibrant throwback experience, with 90s-inspired activities for all to enjoy. Expect:
At 6:30 pm, we head into the cinema for a specially curated screening of 12 short films by some of the region’s exciting filmmakers. Bold, Personal and inventive work that captures the creative spirit of the Sandbox.
After the credits roll, stick around for post-screening drinks, chats with the filmmakers, and more time with your creative community.
Event Details:
?Picturehouse @ FACT – 88 Wood Street, Liverpool, L1 4DQ
? 20.05.25
? Doors & Activities from 4:30 | Screening from 6:30
?️ Tickets: £4
Whether you’re a filmmaker, a vintage obsessive, or just curious about Liverpool’s creative scene, this is your invitation to be part of something different. Come dressed in your best 90s look and help us build a new kind od film night for the city.
Not only is Kit de Waal an incredibly talented writer and storyteller, she is also a champion for elevating the voices and opportunities for diverse, working class writers, putting her money where her mouth is by creating the Kit de Waal Creative Writing Scholarship to help improve working-class representation in the arts.
It’s a pleasure to welcome her back to WoWFEST for this online event discussing her latest novel, The Best of Everything, described by Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo as ‘A profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power’. The Best of Everything follows Paulette’s planning for her future perfect wedding, honeymoon, perfect life. But life has other plans for her. Denton disappears without a goodbye, his friend Garfield steps in—and soon, there’s a baby, and Paulette finds purpose raising her son. But it isn’t enough, and Paulette finds can’t she stop thinking about Nellie, a little boy growing up nearby with no mother in sight? A moving tale of unexpected love and the ties that pull us in, no matter our plans. Pull up a chair and get your hankies ready.
British/Irish writer Kit de Waal is the author of multiple novels. My Name Is Leon was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and was adapted for BBC2; The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction; her acclaimed biography Without Warning and Only Sometimes was Radio 4 Book of the Week, and shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. She has written extensively about the need for the publishing industry to be more inclusive, was editor of Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers. and presented the BBC Radio 4 programme Where Are All the Working Class Writers?
Dive into the raw, untamed heart of storytelling with ‘Wild Writing,’ a festival exploration of memoir, fiction, and the spaces in between. Join Jeff Young, navigating the hallucinatory landscapes of memory in Wild Twin; Jake Morris-Campbell, charting a poetic pilgrimage through Northumbria in Between the Salt and the Ash; and Tony Wailey, evoking the maritime rhythms of Liverpool’s past in his series The Diary of the Smyth-Wailey’s.
Discover how these writers push the boundaries of form, blending fact and feeling to forge new, powerful ways of telling our stories. From personal journeys to regional odysseys, experience the wild, transformative power of words.
Jeff Young is a Liverpool-based writer for screen, stage, and radio. A former Creative Writing lecturer, he is the author of Ghost Town (Costa Prize-shortlisted) and Wild Twin, a dreamlike memoir of travel, memory, and loss.
Tony Wailey is a Liverpool-born writer and former seaman. His work explores . His work, including his forthcoming book, Rhythms That Carry, maritime history and identity, with a focus on Liverpool’s seafaring past entwined with the personal stories of those who lived it.
Jake Morris-Campbell is a poet and BBC New Generation Thinker from South Shields. In Between the Salt and the Ash (March 2025), he embarks on a pilgrimage across Northumbria, exploring history, identity, and cultural change.