Event type: Festival

Angel Field Festival 2022

Some of the North West’s most exciting local musicians and composers will take to the stage at the upcoming Angel Field Festival 2022. 

And with an eclectic mix of events covering Motown, funk and soul, classical guitar, dance, live storytelling and film screenings, the week-long festival offers something for everyone.

The Angel Field Festival 2022 runs from Friday 11th March to Saturday 19th March 2022 and is organised and hosted by Liverpool Hope University.

The performances will take place in Liverpool’s Capstone Theatre and Cornerstone Theatre – both located on Hope’s city centre Creative Campus.

Manchester’s BBC-acclaimed funk stars Buffalo Brothers will be joined by Liverpool’s own up-and-coming jazz-funk-punk outfit Sweet Beans.

Liverpool songwriter Evie Moran, 20, has been likened to acts like Billie Marten and popular folk trio The Staves, and will support UK singer Nick James for a spectacular celebration of Soul, Motown, Swing Pop, Rock, RnB and Modern Pop.

Joining the line-up is Newcastle-based choreographer Dora Frankel and composer Peter Coyte, whose Trails dance event will celebrate the work of English Romantic painter JMW Turner.

A free art exhibition, Signifiance: Painting Beyond Borders, will feature works from acclaimed contributors John Bunker, John Chilver, Phil Frankland, Gunther Herbst, Peter Lamb, Charley Peters, Simon Pike, Jessica Power, Michael Stubbs, Mark Wright.

Angel Field Festival runs from 11th – 19th March 2022 at Liverpool Hope University venues. There are additional daytime events held.

For full details and for details of how to book tickets, head to the Angel Field Festival 2022 website.

POP26: A Climate Carnival

POP26: A Climate Carnival at Future Yard on Thursday 3rd March, a day of debate, live performances, celebration and dialogue on how the DIY music sector is responding to the climate emergency.

Shift will be represented in the day, hosting one of the panel discussions, talking about the network and recruiting more organisations to joining them.

This is a great opportunity for us as a network to represent ourselves, to meet in person and speak to other businesses. As part of their panel they would love to showcase some examples of the sustainable work you’re doing around energy, food and transport. If you have any case studies, and you’d be happy for them to share please fill in this short form.

POP26 is part of The Good Business Festival’s ‘Going Zero Carbon with Wirral’, a 2-day event starting on Wednesday 2nd March at Start-Yard, Convenience Gallery and Bloom Building, and concluding at Make Hamilton Square and Future Yard the following day. Future Yard will be launching their Sustainability Roadmap, a plan to limit their environment impact and ultimately become the UK’s first carbon-neutral grassroots music venue.

Tickets for POP26 are free and available now – register here. Separate tickets are available for the daytime (2pm – 7pm) and evening (7pm – 11pm) activity.

Liverpool International Jazz Festival ...

With an eclectic mix of performers from across the globe, organisers say this year’s Liverpool International Jazz Festival (LIJF) is the most multicultural it has ever been.

The series of events organised and hosted by Liverpool Hope University runs from Thursday 24th February to Sunday 27th February 2022.

The global pandemic meant the Festival wasn’t able to run in 2021.

But having first launched in 2013, the Jazz Festival has played host to some of the genre’s leading lights, including Courtney Pine, Denys Baptiste, Roller Trio, Impossible Gentlemen, Kit Downes, Led Bib, Philip Catherine, GoGo Penguin, Troyka, Neil Cowley Trio, and Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio.

One of this year’s Festival highlights – and perhaps the most accessible show for non-jazz aficionados – will see the Camilla George Band take to the stage on Saturday 26th Feb.

It’ll see Nigeria-born saxophonist Camilla George leading a funky, joyous celebration of the fusion between African and Western music.

The festival also encompasses Liverpool Sax Day, a day long event featuring workshops and masterclasses from BBC’s Young Jazz Musician of the year 2018 and rising UK sax star Xhosa Cole, plus the North’s leading jazz tenor man Dean Masser.

There are additional daytime events, see here for full listings.

Tickets for the Liverpool International Jazz Festival are on sale now via Ticket Quarter or through the Capstone Theatre website. Individual show tickets are priced from £15, while you can enjoy a full weekend pass for just £50.

Meanwhile you can also get involved in various after-parties and alternative gigs – which link to Liverpool’s grassroots jazz scene – after each performance throughout the festival, including a live music event at Melodic Distraction Coffee & Bar on Friday 25th February, and a very special intimate performance by the stunning Neil Yates / Dean Masser Quintet at The Tempest on Sunday 27th.

Liverpool Sound City 2022

Sound City is the home of new music discovery in Liverpool and 2022 marks its 15th anniversary in the city. Acts performing across the weekend include The Lathums, Self Esteem, Mae Muller, Brooke Combe, Tim Burgess and many more fantastic artists.

Emerging across the streets of Liverpool back in 2008 as a heralded celebration of new and exciting music, Sound City has become an essential date in the diary for music fans far and wide to come together and discover the sounds of the future. Nestled in a European capital of music culture, its storied alumni who have made those first steps at Sound City reads as a who’s who of the biggest and brightest names in modern music (from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, The xx, Alt-J and Courtney Barnett to The Wombats, Royal Blood, Catfish & The Bottlemen and many more). Continuing to champion and elevate the sounds that’ll come to define the years ahead, Sound City celebrates its 15th Anniversary by doing what it does best. Pointing to the here and now.

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Liverpool’s Chinese New Year celebrations are back with a ‘roar’ as the city marks the Year of the Tiger.

Returning this year after 2021’s virtual event, the in-person spectacular will celebrate Europe’s oldest Chinese community by bringing together traditional celebrations such as the dragon and unicorn parades and combining them with brand new, free commissions such as 3D projections, fire performances, new artwork, dance and live music.

Culture Liverpool has commissioned all of the new pieces of work to complement the free traditional Chinese New Year celebrations which includes dragon, unicorn and Lucky Man parades, firecracker displays, family workshops, Tai Chi demonstrations, a small fairground and food stalls. Activity will take place from 11am-5.30pm on Sunday 6 February.

The ambition is for the contemporary element to excite, inspire and delight the thousands expected to head in to the city centre.

New for this year are:

From Friday 4 to Sunday 6 February, a 3D animated Water Tiger will prowl around the tower inside St Luke’s Church (the Bombed Out Church). Taking place from 6-9pm each night, the projections will transform the tower into a Chinese pagoda, complete with lanterns designed by local schools and community groups. The show, which lasts for ten minutes and will run on a loop each evening, is free but there is an ask for donations for the venue.  The work has been created by Focal Studios, Scenegraph Studios in collaboration with the Bombed Out Church.

Work is under way on a new mural will take pride of place in Great George Square playground courtesy of Zap Graffiti which is bringing together an award-winning Beijing artist, Tang Shou, and local youngsters who will create a piece of art which symbolises what the Year of the Tiger means to them.

New commissions taking place on Sunday 6 February

Pagoda Arts will shine a spotlight on Tian – an up-and-coming young band made up of east/southeast Asian artists who perform a blend of original east-meets-west tracks. They will take to the stage in Great George Square at 2.20pm and 3.50pm, and will play a ticketed event at the Liverpool Philharmonic’s Music Room that evening.

From 5.15pm, Bring The Fire Project will showcase their incredible skills at the Chinese Arch with a specially created Chinese New Year performance which will incorporate traditional martial arts. They will be joined by Hung Gar Kung Fu’s illuminated dragon and lion.

Dance company Movema explore the cultural history of Chinese New Year and have produced contemporary work which embraces our diverse communities and celebrates what makes Liverpool so unique and special.  A series of pop-up performances will take place in the afternoon, in and around Chinatown with on-stage activity at 3.10pm and 4.25pm.

Visually stunning Feng Huang (Chinese Phoenix) street animation will appear at the Bombed Out Church at 1.45pm.

The Black-e Youth Circus present, Triumph of the Tiger, a short story told through circus skills, illuminations and costume involving young people aged 6 to 18 years. Involving ground-based and aerial performance, it will create a beautiful illuminated spectacle to tell a simple tale of how we can overcome adversity.

The costumes and LED illuminations will be coloured to represent the five tigers from Ancient Chinese myths. The performance involves a collaboration with Bring The Fire Project. Throughout the day The Black-e will also be offering circus skills taster workshops on Nelson Street for members of the public to participate in and a beanbag making workshop.

Building up to the main day of activity, from this week thousands of Chinese lanterns will adorn the city centre streets, and from Sunday 30 January a number of buildings will be illuminated in red in honour of the new year – signifying good fortune and joy to everyone.

These buildings include the Cunard, Port of Liverpool, Liverpool Town Hall, St George’s Hall, Central Library Picton Colonnades, Toxteth Library, Everyman & Playhouse Theatres, the Martin Luther King building, Mersey Gateway Bridge and University of Liverpool’s Yoko Ono Centre. The Royal Liver Building and the Radio City tower will light up on Tuesday 1 February which is Chinese New Year.

For those who can’t make it in person, there will be plenty to enjoy online with suggested activities and archive footage. Head to www.cultureliverpool.co.uk/cny or keep up with the latest news by following Culture Liverpool on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Follow the conversation on socials with #CNYLiverpool.

The event has been organised by Liverpool City Council’s Culture Liverpool team in partnership with the Liverpool Chinese Business Association. The new commissions have been made possible thanks to support from Liverpool City Council.

Africa Oyé 2022

A Grammy Award-winning Malian musician, an Afrobeats pioneer, and a reggae legend will headline The Africa Oyé Festival this summer.

The festival team are delighted to announce that Oumou Sangaré, Fuse ODG and Eek-A-Mouse will top the bill at this year’s free celebration of African and Caribbean culture in Liverpool, along with a host of other acclaimed acts appearing on the line-up.

Following a two-year hiatus brought on by the pandemic, the festival returns to Sefton Park on June 18th and 19th 2022 – the organisation’s 30th anniversary year.

Beginning in 1992 as a series of gigs in the city centre, Africa Oyé has evolved into one of Liverpool’s most beloved annual events, attracting artists and attendees from across the globe.

Oumou Sangaré was just 21 when her first album, Moussoulu, with its groundbreaking songs championing female empowerment and condemning inequality and polygamy, rocketed her to national stardom in her home country of Mali in 1989.

Since then she has become internationally recognised as one of Africa’s greatest voices, performing at prestigious venues and festivals around the world, receiving honours and awards and releasing a string of acclaimed albums. Her music is contemporary yet stays true to her musical roots of Wassoulou – a historical region south of the Niger River, where the music descends from age-old traditional song.

British-Ghanaian superstar Fuse ODG made his name in the London rap scene after growing up in the UK capital. Born Nana Richard Abiona, the producer and artist has been a pioneer of the rise of Afrobeats across the world, as well as an active influence in helping young people in his local communities realise their musical aspirations through a mobile studio.

Fuse – who will be bringing a full live performance to Oyé –  also helped found the TINA (This Is New Africa) movement that set out to encourage Africans to use their skills in rebuilding their communities and take pride in their cultural heritage.

Described as ‘ludicrous, bizarre, and uniquely original’, few artists have made such a splash in the dancehall scene more than Eek-A-Mouse. He became a household name in Jamaica in the late 70s and early 80s having invented a whole new vocal style, sing-jay, flooding the airwaves with his catch phrases and going on to become a respected toaster. His set at Oyé will see him backed by British reggae rhythm section and production team, Mafia & Fluxy.

The eclectic line-up for this year’s festival also includes the return of DR Congo’s Kanda Bongo Man, who previously played Oyé back in 2009 and 2003; Cape Verdean singer-songwriter, Elida Almeida; one of Guinea-Bissau’s most influential bands, Tabanka Djaz; the Ghanian modern highlife stars, Santrofi; French-Cameroonian songstress, Valérie Ékoumé; and Congolese electro music ambassador, Kizaba, with more acts set to be revealed soon.

The festival will see one of Merseyside’s most beautiful green spaces filled with the music and culture of Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora, for two free days of live music, DJs and dance, as well as workshops, food stalls and a range of traders in the Oyé Village.

The festival this year will be the main event of a year-long programme of events to celebrate Oyé’s 30th anniversary.

Now a cornerstone of the festival, 2022 sees The Oyé Active Zone head into its second decade of providing festival-goers with free workshops across the whole weekend, suitable for all ages, while the ever-popular DJ stages Trenchtown and Freetown are also confirmed to return.

The line-up for this year’s Oyé Introduces programme, which sees up-and-coming local talent showcased on the line-up alongside the international heavyweights, is set to be announced alongside the next wave of artists and community performances.

The Africa Oyé festival will take place on June 18th and 19th 2022, in Liverpool’s Sefton Park from 12:30pm til 9:30pm both days and entrance is FREE.

Photo Credit Mark McNulty

Liverpool Now Festival 2022

Join in with the 7th year of the Liverpool NOW Festival, which will be hosted at the magnificent Black-E!!!

The festival will take place on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of February 2022. Head along and see some of Liverpool’s children and young people showcase their pieces all around the theme of mental health and ”What needs to change to bounce forwards?”

This year we also have a very exciting guest performance from Wired Aerial Theatre who will be performing their piece of ”Me vs Me”.

The pieces you will see at the festival are created by the children and young people themselves. Each evening will showcase pieces from primary, secondary and special schools, as well as youth and voluntary organisations.

Winterfest: A White Party For Sickle C...

If you’re looking for an event to go to this December, Winterfest is a must — with incredible live music, a gospel choir, Caribbean food and loads of boss prizes on offer!

Local grass roots Black Arts organisation, BlackFest, are putting on an amazing showcase of multi award winning talent in memory of Naomi Loy who recently died from sickle cell.

The show is from 7pm on Saturday 18th December at District and sees a host of  extremely talented Merseyside artists come together to collaborate and raise awareness and money around sickle cell. Live acts on the night include Amique & The Ecstasy, Wavertree Gospel Choir, iamkyami, Ni Maxine, Remée, Sorelle, Shak Omar, DJ Shenice and Tyrone Lewis and tickets are just £15!

For tickets to the event see here.

If you would like to donate to Rebecca’s GoFundMe see:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/winterfest-fundraiser-for-sickle-cell-disease?utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer

Profits raised from Winterfest will go to The Sickle Cell Society, with a portion of proceeds also going to the Haemoglobin Unit at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. Naomi Loy’s sister, Rebecca, has also set up a GoFundMe page for the cause with the aim of raising £5000.

 

 

Convenience Gallery Christmas Festival

Convenience Gallery are throwing a massive Christmas Festival and you are all invited.

On the day they’ve got a boss line-up of local talent and live music from Astles, Louie Miles, Spilt Milk Society, Nace x2 b2b and E&M b2b.

Dripped Goods will be leading a drop in workshop too! They will also have an art auction with work for sale from local artists we’ve worked with and supported across the last two years. They also have a huge raffle with some incredible prizes all donated from independent businesses across the area.

They’ve also got food from Forked Up Vegan, and the Bloom bar will be open and they’re really looking forward to kicking off the festive season with you all.

This event is free to attend (donation based and raffle tickets available) and the first 50 pints of AloeBirra will be free thanks to the AloeBirra Team as well – they’re a new independent brewery on the Wirral and you’re going to love them.

This festival is also an opportunity for them to fundraise for Convenience too. As a not for profit any money they make goes back into delivering the work, project and support what they do in the community. Part of the push for this will be their Christmas Raffle(who doesn’t love a raffle).

They have prizes from: Future Yard, Make Hamilton, Zero Clucks Given, Adams & Russell, Be Well Learning, FINSA, Where Are The Girl Bands, Amerton Pottery, CASS Art, Jostles Bakery, Glen Affric, BIFF, Astles, Rendova Farm Shop, Wirral Wellbeing, 10 Street Cycles, Essen Minimal, Hoylake Pantry, ODC Ts, Convenience Ts/ Life Drawing. Follow the ticket link to get you early raffle tickets.

A second part of their fundraising and a major part of the day will be their art auction. You will have the chance to bid on and hopefully own original work from Joana de Oliveira Guerreiro, Patric Rogers, Andy Wolfenden, Georgemma Hunt, Millie Toyin Olateju, Jon Edgley, Ryan Gauge, Dripped Goods, Ry Dilkes, Rosa Kussabi, Lois Tierney, Fred Franke, Dan Chan, Stephen Forge, Max Mallender, Ellie Brennan, Faye Hamblett-Jones, Dan O’Dempsey with more to be announced!! It’s a fantastic line up of amazing northwest creatives.

They’d love to see you down on the day, the day’s programme starts from 4pm with plenty to get involved with. This event is family friendly too. So pop down for a bit or dance the night away it a day for everyone.

The event is free to attend and they have free tickets available but they also have raffle tickets available via the link here.

They have appreciated everyone’s support this year and can’t wait to celebrate with you all on the 4th.

Follow the White Rabbit – Fire S...

Zest Event Management and Bring the Fire Project are joining forces to bring “Follow the White Rabbit”, a series of free, family-friendly Fire Street Theatre performances to the streets of Liverpool.

Kept secret until the very day, the locations of the fire pop-up performances will be revealed by following the White Rabbit, who will roam the city centre with the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat and, of course, Alice.

The characters will ‘lead the way’ to the next performance, transforming familiar places into scenes from Wonderland as the story unfolds.

Based on the characters from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, this brand-new bonfire celebration will take place across Liverpool City Centre on the 5th and 6th November between 4.30pm and 7.30pm.