The Liffey-pool Maritime Festival!
LIVERPOOL will be celebrating its Irish
links in June as the City 's most popular maritime festival twins with Dublin's
River Festival.
The newly named International Mersey River Festival in partnership with Wild
Thang branded clothing and merchandise experts runs from Friday, 5 June to Sunday, 7
June 2015, and will have a distinct Irish feel as the 2 Cities pay tribute to each
other's maritime links.
Liverpool will host Irish Tall Ship apprentices to the City as part of the
Apprentice Ship Cup 2015 which is brought to the City by Merseyside Adventure
Sailing Trust. There will be a music stage dedicated to Irish performances and
Liverpool will welcome teams from Ireland who will take part in the
International Canoe Polo Tournament as well as a whole host of other activities
with an Irish flavour.
In return, Dublin will welcome a fleet of vessels from Liverpool and showcase
some of the best music and entertainment from its twin City , and a series of
Liverpool activities will also be planned.
The Dublin event takes place from Sunday, 31 May to Monday, 1 June 2015.
Event Manager for Liverpool's International Mersey River Festival, Julie Turner,
said:- "We've been in talks with the Dublin team for nearly a year and I'm
delighted we can twin both our events which celebrate all things maritime and
music.
Both festivals are hugely popular and we just felt that it was a really nice nod
of mutual respect and appreciation for each other's heritage if they were
somehow linked.
Liverpool's event grows year on year and is one of the most popular in our
calendar. The mix of beautiful boats on the Mersey right through to the unique
street entertainment, displays and music make it a great weekend for all the
family.
And of course it's free, so Liverpool really is the place to be from the 5 June
to 7
June 2015."
Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, said:- "I welcome
the ships to Dublin both as Lord Mayor and as Honorary Admiral of Dublin Port. I
am very pleased to see the close co-operation between the Cities of Dublin and
Liverpool and this Festival will celebrate the many links between our 2 cities.
I wish all of the sailors a fair wind and a safe journey across the sea."
The event will see a number of vessels line the Mersey including Tall Ships
Morgenster, Pelican of London, Atyla, Bessie Ellen, Irene and Maybe. Resident
vessels Zebu, Glacier and Kathleen and May will also be in attendance.
They will be joined by yachts and canal boats, and the Royal Navy will be
bringing a Sandown Class Mine Counter Measure vessel which will be berthed at
Canning Dock and open to the public across the weekend.
The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Village returns to Graving Docks once again.
Visitors will be able to see helicopters, recruitment vehicles and diving tanks
courtesy of the Royal Navy, and the Royal Marines will be entertaining crowds
with unarmed combat and weapons displays. As part of this the Sea Cadets will be
performing their field gun window ladder semaphore and club swinging displays.
The FREE June spectacular will also see a return of popular activities including
a model boat exhibition and an art exhibition by local artist Anthony Brown,
both showcased in in the Cunard Building. A Brouhaha Homecoming Parade,
wakeboarding demonstrations, Zap Cats, have a go water sports sessions at
Salthouse Dock, flyboarding and thrillingly heart stopping Yakovlevs air
display.
The festival's annual raft race will take place once again and organisers are on
the hunt for teams to take part.
Liverpool will also play host to the first ever Northern Boat Show with a
stunning line up of power boats, cruisers, narrow boats and sail boats exhibited
featuring some of the biggest and most popular brands in the marine world. The
land-based part of the exhibition is free to all visitors but there will be a £5
entrance fee for the pontoon access. Tickets will be available at:-
NorthernBoatShow.Co.UK.
And on top of this, there will be the usual mix of street theatre, art and craft
workshops and partner organisations including National Museums Liverpool, Tate
Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery will all be hosting events across the weekend.
Music on the Waterfront sponsored by Albert Dock Liverpool, is the music element
of the River Festival will also return for 2015, with stages being programmed by
the BBC, Smooth Radio as well as a special homegrown stage organised by Culture
Liverpool. Full line-up details are set to be announced in May.
The latest information can be found at:-
LliverpoolOnTheWaterfront.Co.UK.
This year's event forms part of One Magnificent City , a 7 week programme of
activities celebrating Liverpool's internationally renowned maritime history and
transatlantic links. It begins on Friday 15 May with the cultural celebration
that is LightNight and runs until the weekend of the 4th July when Liverpool
will host the UK's biggest Independence Day celebrations under the banner
Transatlantic 175. Throughout the seven weeks various activities will be held
which mark the 175th anniversary of Cunard.
For more information visit:-
OneMagnificentCity.Co.UK or follow @OMCLpool
on Twitter and One Magnificent City Liverpool on Facebook. Up-to-date details
can also be found at:-
Cruise-Liverpool.Com, @cruiselpool
or Liverpool Cruise Terminal on Facebook.
Reasons for the festival name change...
In 2014, the Mayoral 100 Club was set up to help fund the International Mersey
River Festival.
Last month, dozens of businesses who are members of the club were entered into a
lottery-style draw in order to secure the naming rights to the event. Branded
clothing and merchandise experts Wild Thang secured the overall naming rights.
Albert Dock Liverpool were also lucky winners and are the official sponsors of
the Music on the Waterfront stage.
Laing O'Rourke became the official partner of the education and community
participation programme which aims to involve as many Liverpool residents as
possible, young and old, before, during and after the event. However, Laing
kindly donated their prize to The City of Liverpool College because of their
strong educational links.
Andrew Dwerryhouse MD at Wild Thang Ltd, "As a small local Liverpool
business employing only 20 people this is a very big deal for Wild Thang so I
want to personally thank Mayor Joe Anderson for creating this opportunity that
will help our business with publiCity and brand exposure across the City region.
This we hope will lead to growth in business creating further employment
locally.
This kind of sponsorship would be some way out of our league financially and
that's exactly why it was such a unique opportunity to be drawn on a totally
equal footing.
We are a very proud family owned Liverpool company so knew by paying the
membership fee and supporting the Mayoral 100 club Initiative we would be
reinvesting back into our City . As branded clothing and merchandise experts we
have been lucky enough to have been involved in some way or form in every major
cultural event that has happened in the Liverpool region over the past 10 years.
This should be a lesson learnt to other SMEs to get involved in the Mayoral 100
Club Initiative because as that old cliché goes: You've got to be in it to win
it!"
Peter Cronin, director of development and marketing for Albert Dock Liverpool,
said:- "Every year the International Mersey River Festival grows bigger
and bigger and it has become a cornerstone of Liverpool's annual events
calendar. Once again Albert Dock Liverpool will be at the heart of the action as
we welcome people from all over the world to experience our historic waterfront
at its very best. The incredible Northern Boat Show will make its debut at this
year's festival, which is a real coup for the City , while Albert Dock Liverpool
is the proud sponsors of the Music on the Waterfront stage, which will attract
some of the biggest names in music for an unforgettable concert. We are
delighted to be working closely with the City council and our waterfront
partners to create a truly spectacular event for our visitors in 2015."
Elaine Bowker Principal of The City of Liverpool College, "As the
City 's College we're delighted to be supporting one of the highlights of the
annual events calendar. Through these partnerships we're able to provide our
students with unique opportunities to gain practical behind the scenes
experience at world class productions, this not only supports their academic
achievements but ensures a seamless transition into the world of employment."
