Two years ago the ECHO appealed to the city’s venues to help rescue the festival in some form and was inundated with offers of help.

Liverpool’s bars, clubs and even restaurants rushed to help save the festival atmosphere and give visitors and the people of Merseyside a weekend to remember.

And it was such a success that even when the festival returned, they repeated their efforts, creating the fringe festival.

Last night showed off the arty musings of Higbosun at Zanzibar, the indie stylings of Peter & the Wolf at Bumper and the angular guitars of the Black Jackals at Heebie Jeebies.

Last night Liverpool’s hottest bands played in the hippest venues, drawing on what makes the city’s scene so strong – the close knit spacing of venues in town that promote music seven days a week, 52 weeks of any year – capital of culture or not.

And today’s highlights promise to be the Liverpool ECHO new bands stage in Exchange Street and a stage dedicated to the memory of radio presenter Phil Easton, featuring a line-up of original and tribute bands reflecting the music he loved, headlined by China Crisis.

The band said: "We’re truly honoured to be headlining the Mathew Street Festival. Next year is our 30th together. But this is the first time we've played it, so we're really looking forward to it.

"We play a Christmas show at the Cavern every year and this year the organisers asked if we'd do Mathew Street as well."

Council leader Warren Bradley said: "The festival has got off to an excellent start. It’s great to see so many people coming into the city, and also that people who live here have come out to celebrate our rich musical heritage.

"We’ve been delighted to see so many families out enjoying the music. I saw three generations out together, which shows that the appeal of the festival is now broader than ever.

"It was hard to top last year’s festival – we had Capital of Culture status on our side – but, judging from the numbers out today, I think we have.

"We’ve shown that we can work together, and that while Liverpool may no longer be European Capital of Culture, thanks to its huge artistic output it will always be a cultural capital of Europe."

jade.wright@liverpool.com