Over the
Bank Holiday weekend (26 – 27 August), the streets of Liverpool will be packed
out for the Mathew Street Festival. This free two-day event is 20 years old this
year, with over 80 hours of live outdoor music provided by cover, original and
new bands, attracting both locals and guests from all over Europe. Five
outdoor stages provide live music from midday until 6.00 p.m. More than 95
bands will be performing from as far as USA, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Switzerland,
Russia, Sweden and Scotland.
To celebrate
the 50th anniversary of The Beatles in their best-known incarnation, there will be a tribute to Liverpool’s
most famous band: the second day has been renamed Merseybeat Monday,
celebrating all things Beatles and Beatles-influenced. Two stages will be
dedicated to the Fab Four, as that week marks 50 years since Ringo joined John,
Paul and George (and since Pete Best was ousted, which even now some Beatles fans haven't forgiven the three other Beatles for). A selection of tracks from every Beatles album will be
performed.
The festival is always good fun with a great
atmosphere. My write up of the 2010 event can be found here. Being Liverpool,
there is no shortage of great pubs in the area as well.
It's a pity the Monday outdoor events were cancelled due to the high winds, although quite a few people have made the point that the winds weren't particularly high at all; probably the difference between a forecast and what actually happens. A woman predictably muttered, "Health and safety gone mad", but if one of her loved ones had died because forecast warnings had been ignored, she'd take a completely different view.
ReplyDeleteWorth a read if you haven't seen it...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sevenstreets.com/events-and-attractions/feature-events-and-attractions/7-ways-to-save-liverpoolmathew-st-festival/
An interesting article. In my opinion it exaggerates some of the problems, but I do agree about the preponderance of tribute bands. There is no shortage of original bands and artists in Liverpool.
ReplyDelete