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LIVERPOOL TO BE CAPITAL OF FREE CULTURE

Liverpool has unveiled a highlights programme of over 100 events and festivals in a bid to be the UK capital of FREE culture in 2009.

The city announced today it is to build on its success as the 2008 European Capital of Culture, which generated £800m for the regional economy, by commissioning several major FREE cultural events including a waterfront festival and a public art parade similar in scale to the ’08 hit Go Superlambananas.

Liverpool City Council is inviting arts organisations to bid to deliver a FREE festival of art, music and film staged over three weekends in the summer on its world famous waterfront.

The On The Waterfront festival aims to reflect Liverpool’s connection to New York and would be one of the premiere events to celebrate the city’s Year of Environment – the first ’08 legacy themed year. It will also overlap with Tate Liverpool’s major art exhibition for ’09 – Colour Chart – and a new film festival AND at FACT.

The Year of Environment has also inspired the commissioning of a FREE public art event called A Winters Trail – which would be staged in the run up to Christmas and have a similar impact to Go Superlambananas event last summer.

As well as new events for ’09 there will also be major artistic commissions, worth up to £25,000, attached to some of the city’s celebrated FREE outdoor festivals.

And for the first time the city will be staging an exhibition of all the grassroots cultural projects it funds in the summer, as well as staging a celebration of a neighbourhood wide arts programme – called Four Corners - at the Bluecoat in July.

Liverpool Events, Liverpool Capital of Culture 09


The council’s new culture team – called Culture Liverpool – has also revamped some of the biggest FREE events on the calendar, such as:

  • HUB Life and HUB Night – a new week-long fringe festival for the UK’s biggest free extreme sports event, delivered in partnership with major cultural organisations – May 24-31.
  • Liverpool’s Lord Mayor’s Pageant – to be car free with new route, June 6, supported by new week of children’s events in the June half-term break.
  • Mathew Street Festival’s Fringe Festival is to be expanded – August 30-31.
Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: ‘’Delivering ‘08 was a huge challenge but the real test is maintaining momentum and these highlights show it is going to pass it with flying colours. To be offering so much free culture, that no UK city is even attempting, speaks volumes for the way the city’s cultural sector works together. It shows the momentum of ’08 will never be lost and Liverpool will forever be a cultural capital.’’

Today’s announcement comes just six weeks after the council approved an £8.45m arts budget maintaining Capital of Culture funding levels for the next two years, benefiting 67 arts organisations. Equivalent to a phenomenal 42% rise from 2005 to 2011, the council is also investing £2m more in culture than before it set up the Liverpool Culture Company in 2005.

Claire McColgan, Head of Culture at Liverpool City Council, said: ‘’Being European Capital of Culture has raised everyone’s expectations and although its impossible to repeat that year, its clear from these highlights for ‘09 that Liverpool’s ambition and ability to deliver a knock-out programme is second to none. We have learnt a lot from ’08, we know that collaboration works and that people have a huge appetite for new events and we’ve listened.’’

Nine other major FREE events to look out for in ‘09 include:

  • The Great Green Sculpture Challenge over Easter Week at Tate Liverpool.
  • The End of the Line  - A new major drawing exhibition by 11 international artists, at the Bluecoat - 22 May to 19 July.
  • Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today at Tate Liverpool – with works by Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst. Under-12s go FREE. 29 May to 13 September
  • The 2008 BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral - 15 August to 20 September.
  • New Radicals: From Sickert to Freud  - exhibition of early 20th century British masterpieces from L.S. Lowry to Stanley Spencer. The Walker -10 July to 20 Sep.
  • Urbanism ’09 – New work by Liverpool Biennial with week-long celebration of six months of environmental interventions on the Leeds-Liverpool canal. Sep 16-20.
  • Under the Volcano - A major Bluecoat exhibition to mark centenary of Merseyside’s giant of modern fiction – Malcolm Lowry. 25 September to 22 November.
  • The Rise of Women Artists – Tracking the historical changes influencing women artists from painting to ceramics at The Walker – 23 October to 14 March 2010.
  • Next Level: Game Spaces Beyond the Screen – a celebration of the evolution of computer games at FACT from December to February 2010.

 

Councillor Gary Millar, Executive Member for Enterprise and Tourism, said: ‘’I think this programme would be worthy of any European Capital of Culture – it’s that good. In the recession, providing so much free events is going to be a huge boost in our efforts to maintain the city’s appeal as a world class cultural destination.’’

Liverpool is also staging some of the biggest cultural events to hit the UK this year, most notably at the Echo Arena which will host legends from Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan to blockbuster shows such as Walking With Dinosaurs and The Blueman Group.

2009 is set to be a big year on the stage with Jonathan Pryce returning to the Everyman for Pinter’s The Caretaker, Roger McGough adapting Moliere’s Hypochondriac for the Playhouse, Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine returning to The Royal Court and The Empire stages Peter Pan for its Christmas pantomime show.

There will be two world premieres by Liverpool writers in Nicky Alt’s One Night in Istanbul and Lost Monsters by Laurence Wilson and new writing will be celebrated at the city’s three main literature festivals – Everyword, Writing on The Wall and Chapter and Verse.

As well as Dylan and Clapton, Joan Baez will be performing at Philharmonic Hall which is also hosting a Spanish tribute to The Clash and will see Vasily Petrenko lead the RLPO in another season of stellar concerts and take residence in a new rehearsal space in Everton.

On another musical note, the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral stages a World Premiere bell ringing interpretation of John Lennon’s Imagine for FREE and there will be a FREE  Royal Opera House screening of the Barber of Seville in July while English National Ballet perform Giselle at The Empire in the autumn.

New for 2009 will see FACT staging the AND Festival of New Cinema and Digital Culture in September. The festival will then alternate between Liverpool and Manchester every year.

And new for 2009 in the sporting arena will see Liverpool staging a new Triathlon (June 21) and first ever professional Twenty-20 cricket match (June 22).

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