June 2008

Sep 27 2007

1st June

Liverpool Sound

Anfield A once-in-lifetime concert to celebrate Liverpool's status as the World Capital of Pop, headlined by Sir Paul McCartney.

* * *

4th - 11th June

The Big Hope

Hope University

The Big Hope is Liverpool Hope University’s contribution to the Capital of Culture and to the European Parliament’s Year of Intercultural Dialogue. It will bring together 1,000 young people (18-35 years) from across the world who have faith and are potential leaders of their communities. They will consider urgent issues such as the relationship between personal integrity and human life, the development a more humane global society and our roles as individuals.

The programme has international keynote speakers from the worlds of sport, culture, business, education, the environment, politics, human rights and reconciliation including John Sentamu, Archbishop of York; Pius Ncube, Archbishop of Buluwayo; Stephen Green, Chairman of HSBC; Sushobva Barve of Delhi and many others. The Big Hope will end with the Liverpool 2008 International Faith Declaration led by Lord David Alton. It will reconvene in Liverpool in 2018 to assess progress.

* * *

7th June

Lord Mayor's Parade

Liverpool City Centre

Specially enahanced for 2008, Walk the Plank and the Liverpool Lantern Company collaborate to add amazing images and colourful costumes to the Parade…. Artists will be working with community groups and local businesses to create spectacular floats, which are wheeled, pushed or pulled through the streets.

A chance for the many diverse communities that contribute to the cultural identity of the city to parade through the streets, with carnival bands and street performance spilling out from the Parade route to animate the whole city…featured floats will include those made by and with people from the Caribbean Centre, the Arabic Festival, Homotopia, Tara Park travellers community, the Hindu Cultural Association, Kensington Regeneration and associated groups, the Chinese community, and many, many more.

* * *

19th - 22nd June

Design Show Liverpool

Crypt of Metropolitan Cathedral Design Show

Liverpool is set to be the most exciting design event the north west has ever seen. The atmospheric Crypt of Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral will showcase the very best of product design, cutting-edge technology and stylish living.

This is a unique opportunity for the public to browse and buy from over 150 selected designers, who represent the very best in regional, national and international modern design and contemporary fashion. Open to the public, trade buyers and collectors, visitors will see a fantastic range of innovative work, will be able to commission unique pieces for indoors and outdoors, and shop for functional items with a twist – from furniture, glass, ceramics, lighting and eco-design to garden products clothing, jewellery and fashion accessories. There will be fashion shows, workshops and product presentations running throughout each day of the show. For family visitors there will be a children’s interactive play area where parents and children can enjoy themselves in a stimulating, safe and enjoyable environment.

* * *

27th June - 19th July

Once Upon a Time at the Adelphi

Liverpool Playhouse

An affectionate staging of the history of one of Liverpool's most famous landmarks. A new musical for 2008. World Premiere.

* * *

27th June - 31st August

Pipilotti Rist

FACT

One of Europe’s leading contemporary artists, Rist presents a major solo exhibition, including the UK premiere of Gravity Be My Friend.

* * *

28th June

Benjamin Britten's War Requiem

Liverpool Cathedral

Production commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company as part of European Capital of Culture 2008. Performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir, Choir of Liverpool Cathedral, Choir of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, and Choir of Cologne Cathedral. Britten's War Requiem is one of the 20th century's greatest choral works, a passionate outcry about the inhumanity of war.

Composed on a vast scale, the War Requiem was commissioned to celebrate the consecration in 1962 of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, destroyed during air raids in the Second World War. Dedicated to the memory of four of Britten's school friends, three of whom died in the 1939-1945 conflict, the War Requiem is a uniquely powerful work which combines the war poems of Wilfred Owen with the Latin Mass for the Dead. Often angry, deeply unsettling and profoundly moving, it has passages of great tenderness and lyricism, contrasting the ugliness and futility of war, the senseless suffering and the death and destruction it brings, with the distant hope of man’s humanity and salvation. In joining in musical friendship with Cologne, Liverpool’s twin city, where a performance will also be given by these same forces, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is reflecting and celebrating Britten's passionate desire for healing and reconciliation between former enemies.

* * *

June

Open Source City

TBC

Commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company. An actual and Venue virtual gathering of people working on the development of open acess software, by Sound Network.

Theatre in the Park June Parks in Liverpool, Knowsley and Halton Spike Theatre presents the classic Lewis Carroll tale, Alice in Wonderland. Performed by a cast of 40 utilising puppetry, live music, and song some of Merseyside’s lesser-known parks are transformed into a magical wonderland. Now in its fifth year, Theatre in the Park, a partnership project between the Liverpool Culture Company and Knowsley MBC since 2005, continues to develop from strength to strength. In 2008, the borough of Halton will also host a weekend of performances.

* * *

June - July (neighbourhood heats)

Streetwaves

Liverpool's five neighbourhood areas.

Streetwaves is the Liverpool Culture Company’s annual new music competition. It’s a chance for talented musicians aged between 14 and 25 to take their first step in the music industry, get advice from industry professionals, and gain valuable performance experience. Following a series of heats in Liverpool's five neighbourhood areas, the 'most ready' acts will get the chance to play at a series of high profile music events during the summer.

* * *

June - August

Go Superlambanana

Across Liverpool Commissioned by the Liverpool Culture Company for European Capital of Culture 2008.

Liverpool is set to stage a world-class art participation event from late June to early September.  Go Superlambananas will celebrate Liverpool’s communities and see the streets, parks, neighbourhoods and open spaces of Liverpool transformed into an open air, free to view, mass public appeal art event. Up to one hundred, 180cm tall Superlambananas, one of Liverpool’s most iconic and best loved pieces of public art – originally, created by Taro Chiezo for Arts Transpennine in 1998 - will be painted, decorated and adorned by local and regional artists, community groups and celebrities.

The Go Superlambanana sculpture has been specially designed to act as a 3d canvas to showcase the creativity of Liverpool – its heritage; architecture; regeneration and its world renowned arts scene.

Through sponsorship and working with the creative sector, Go Superlambananas will bring together the business and creative sectors to celebrate the spirit of fun which is at the very heart of Liverpool. Over the ten week period, Go Superlambananas is expected to attract thousands of visitors as well as encourage residents to become ‘tourists in their own city’. After the event many of the Superlambananas will be sold at a charity auction with a significant percentage of the proceeds going to local charities.