MORE Mathew Street festival stages could be sponsored by businesses next year in a bid to cut costs to the public purse.

Liverpool city council spent almost £1m on putting on this year’s free musical event.

But to save the famous festival from the public sector cuts, Liverpool city council leader Joe Anderson said he hopes to bring in more private investment for 2011.

This year a family stage in the Albert Dock was sponsored by nearby businesses eager to draw trade to that part of the city centre.

Cllr Anderson said he wants to meet local and national companies before the end of the year to start drumming up support for next year’s Mathew Street Festival.

He said last night: “We have got to keep it going and making it better.

“For every £2 that we invest, it’s estimated we get £12 back.

“But it rises in cost every year, so we have got to explore how we bring in private sector investment. One of the ways is clearly sponsorship.

“I just think we need to explore how we maximise people’s enthusiasm for the festival.

“What we will do very quickly, maybe sometime early in November, is have a sort of get-together of business leaders with the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown in Liverpool, to look at how we can make the experience even better for businesses.”

Over the Bank Holiday, more than 320,000 festival goers piled into Liverpool for what is Europe’s biggest free city centre musical festival.