With 200 bands playing over two days, Matthew Street Festival could well be Liverpool's…read moreGlastonbury. A free event held every August Bank Holiday, MSF finds the city centre transformed into a den of music and mayhem. Last year's festival attracted over 30,000 revellers spread across six areas and this year's on 29 -30 August looks set to be even bigger. There's six outdoor stages planned in Williamson Square, Derby Square and Tithebarn Street amongst other locations. There's also temporary bars and hot and cold food stalls. The live music kicks-off at 11am til early evening with most style of music covered from rock, pop and blues to soul, indie and punk. The only downside is that the majority of bands seem to be cover bands and whilst this doesn't seem to bother most of the revellers, bores me. Luckily, a New Bands Stage was introduced last year with no covers. If you don't like being pushed against complete strangers singing and dancing, there's big TV screens that allow you to watch the performances from a distance. Just make sure you take a sunhat, a large bottle of water and some pennies for food, beer and the obligatory festival item, an inflatable guitar. N.B. I'd give the festival 4 stars for camaraderie but the dire covers bands strips it down to 3!

5 stars is probably a little extravagant for Liverpool's Matthew Street Festival for all things…read moreBeatle related as the talent can be a little hit and miss but overall the weekend long music and booze binge is a good laugh. It is an extremely busy weekend as most bars and clubs take part hosting tribute bands from all over the world. Over the years this has changed dramatically from a few Beatles tributes in The Cavern into a city wide festival for tribute acts for all sorts of classic rock groups, performances from old favourites and even showcases for emerging Liverpool talent. Three years ago was probably the best one I had been too and was definately the biggest. The streets were rammed with people and there were numerous huge stages in the middle of Liverpool's busiest streets.

My first *ever* multi-day music festival (a sheltered adolescence, you see...)…read more FN6 was suggested to me by learned friends as a great 'entry-level' festival to cut my teeth on, and they weren't wrong. Much smaller than the behemoths such as Glastonbury, at 15,000 capacity, it sounded like a decent-sized event to me. Held in and around the seriously picturesque coastal tourist village of Portmeirion in north Wales, their tag line of "A festival like no other in a location like no other" was absolutely spot on. A pal and I headed down there on Thursday as we had weekend camping tickets; meaning we could get set up and start exploring the area before the masses arrived after work on the Friday. This really worked in our favour, as the queues to get our wristbands in nearby Porthmadog (where the park and ride and shuttle buses were) moved fairly steadily. Getting on to site, we carried everything we had up to the general camping area (be sure to think ahead about your choice of bag) - lots of people had small hand-pull trolleys and I even saw a bloke dragging a wheelie bin with his stuff inside. Genius. There's plenty to see and do around the site, with smaller stages in the forest by the beach and to the sides of the main arena. A fantastic range of food stalls were selling all manner of tasty dishes. The have a real ale and a cider bar so don't worry there's more than just commercial lager on tap. We brought our own stash of beers though - you can bring alcohol with you but absolutely no glass bottles. The headliners this year included Kaiser Chiefs, Bastille, Hot Chip and Noel Gallagher, but for me it was the lesser and unknown acts singing, DJing and performing comedy who made it a terrific long weekend (despite the biblical levels of rain and subsequent mud-fest). Though I admit I missed my mattress and my power shower, it was a great experience!

Mathew Street Festival takes place in various locations around Liverpool over August Bank Holiday…read moreweekend every year. This yearly festival is a celebration of Liverpool's music scene and music in general. Several stages and venues are set up in and around the city centre and play host to a vast array of mainly cover bands. As you would imagine, there are several Beatles cover bands but they seem to arrange amongst themselves to play different albums. In previous years, I have also seen a Bob Marley impersonator, a knock-off David Bowie and Stipe, a well known REM cover band. The best part of all this is that most venues are free to attend. Drinking is allowed on the streets and you are welcome to bring your own. It can get very busy but if you fancy a cheap-ish bank holiday, this is a good call

This years Mathew street Festival gave us, once again, THE CLASSIC MOTOWN SHOW What a show by this…read morelocal production company POSITIVE IMPACT The talent this city has to offer is just Fantastic. The singing, the choreography and the costumes, brought back the days of that great Motown era. Thankyou to the organises for the fantastic day. WELL DONE!

This is a two day festival in the beautiful location of tittlesworth water. with live music and…read morecrafts this festival is perfect for young children. When the sun sets in a haze over the water it really is somthing else! Its a shame the was no bar but i expect it was becuase it was so close to the water and they couldnt or decided not to get a licence, this maybe added with the family/relaxed atmosphere. This for some made it unique. Alcohol was still alouded on site and music hit on till late. music included hippy scar and a lively big haired punk set. a very little acoustic tent hit out niche tunes behind the hill in the day. A plesant day

The Unity Theatre is to be commeneded for its commtiment to new theatre productions, new writers…read moreand local talent but with this in mind much of what goes on here can be a bit rough around the edges or hit and miss. With a scarcity of genuine artistic and experimental endeavour with regard some of the more obscure or alternative arts such as dance in Liverpool, The Unity is a vital outlet for such performances and nurturing a broader outlet for creativity in the city beyond music and playwriting especially when the prestigious Lippa institution is situated nearby. The building itself has benefitted from funding and development is a very pleasant, bright and modern space with a nice, if slightly sterile bar area.

Unity is another one of Liverpool's unique buildings that offer more in the way of culture through…read moreproviding a range of drama, dance, comedy, music and art. This place has won loads of awards, one's that have included: The Mersey Partnership Tourism Award for Best Venue, and The Scouseology Award. This place always offers a wide range of shows to suit everyone from young children to the older viewer. In addition, every year there is a festival for children; this makes it great for family day out and in my opinion we need more places that get children involved with music, art and drama encouraging them off the streets. Unity has been situated in Hope place for the last 26 years, and according to its website has attracted 'over 26,500 individual customers to over 260 performances each year'.

This is the 5th Liverpool Biennial, celebrating modern art on an International scale…read more Throughout the streets of Liverpool, artists' instillations can be seen in a myriad of situations ranging from abandoned factories, city parks, bombed out churches, down to the Tate Museum All media varieties from film, to paintings, to models, to light sculptures, etc... it's all fair game & it's all a spectacular sight to behold! Just some of the exhibits we enjoyed in the 2008 MADE UP included: * An enormous Spider's Web, made of lights, connecting a block of buildings in the downtown area * Boxed-in room that is lined w/ mirrors & lighted balls - the effect when the door is closed is just like Carl Sagan - you're standing among billions & billions of stars * Yoko Ono designed the instillation in a beautiful bombed out church - whose perfect outer structure was a facade in the literal sense due to its vast destruction on the inside * City Park where Evergreen Trees rotated tilty-turny * The BEST, most astonishing instillation we saw was this "normal" building in the Downtown area that had a huge hunk cut out & placed on hydraulics - the cut-out piece then *rotated* w/in the building - AMAZING Exhibits will have you walking around Liverpool so there's an added bonus of seeing the beautiful city itself, up close & personal. Nicely laid out maps from the Welcome Center will easily guide you through all the areas of interest & they also commission nighttime activities throughout the 2-month run..... so there's a lot to see & a lot to do! Every 2 years from September through November - most exhibits are FREE Mark your calendars for 2010!! Don't miss it!!

The Liverpool Biennal happens, well, every two years unsurprisingly and over the last decade has…read morebeen a strong element of Liverpool's reinvention as a place of artistic energy and creativity. It's a festival which causes some division amongst Liverpool's artistic community as it is a showcase of international art with commisions going to artists from all over the world and works being shown from internationally renowned names with, some see, not enough attention given to the city's own artists - but then it would really only be a pointless exercise for Liverpool and not the internationally recognised event that it is! The 2 month long event takes place in all the cities galleries but also spills into many other spaces such as outdoor public places and cafes and bars which means that the city does come alive with unusual sights and sounds.

Very very busy boot sale with loads of stalls, meat auctioneer, burger vans ice cream etc, theres a…read moregiant slide for the kids as well, If your buying or selling its a great place to spend a couple of hours and a few £'s.

gets really busy so good if you want to sell stuff. Only thing to watch out for is if you get there…read morereally early to sell, blokes come up to the car with flash lights asking what you have brought with you and offering you about 5p for things until you feel like swearing at them to leave you alone! Usually plenty of food wagons turn up so refreshments are available. Large field and reasonable entry price to get in and to sell. tip - if you are selling, look out in the local papers for vouchers off the cost of a pitch