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Waves of support for River
Festival
3 leading businesses have been given
the lucrative naming rights to one of Liverpool's most popular annual events.
Plans for the 2017 Mersey River Festival are well underway, and following a
lottery style draw involving dozens of local businesses which are part of the
Mayoral 100 Club; a business networking scheme which sees each organisation pay
₤3,000 to become a member which is then invested in to the development of the
festival; the 3 official sponsors have been revealed.
The maritime event takes place across the waterfront, over Saturday, 24 June and Sunday,
25 June 2017, retail and leisure giant Liverpool ONE has scooped top
prize and secured the overall naming rights. This means it will be officially
called:- 'The Mersey River Festival in partnership with Liverpool ONE.'
Chris Bliss, Estate Director at Liverpool ONE, said:- "We are delighted to
be named as this year's headline sponsor. The Mersey River Festival has
established itself as a much loved annual occasion which celebrates Liverpool's
cultural heritage. We are proud to be a part of this and look forward to
showcasing everything which our vibrant City has to offer. Collaborating with
partners across the City is something which is really important to us at
Liverpool ONE and this partnership marks a further great opportunity for our
magnificent City to confirm its place on both the national and international
stage."
Heritage Great Britain which owns and operates some of the UK's most popular
visitor attractions and represents outstanding landmarks, together with
Liverpool's Mattel Play! and last Christmas' Dreamworks Lights destinations, has
been named as the official sponsor of the music zone.
Allan Leech, CEO of Heritage Great Britain PLC said:- "We are proud of our
roots as a Liverpool based company with a portfolio literally stretching from
John O'Groats to Land's End. We welcome more than 2.5 million people every year
to our attractions including Snowdon Mountain Railway and The Needles on the
Isle of Wight and many more and hence we recognize the importance of such large
scale events to the visitor economy. We also work with global brands and
are proud to bring many of these to the City, which is helped again by our
membership of the Mayor's 100 Club, as it continues to promote itself to
national and international markets. The Mersey River Festival is a
fantastic event and we are thrilled to be supporting the musical element of the
event and look forward to the line up being revealed."
1 of Merseyside's largest employers Home Bargains, became the sponsor for the
family zone which will see family entertainment such as street theatre, face
painting and craft workshops taking place across the festival site.
Ines Dearman, Engagement Management for the organisation said:- "Home
Bargains are delighted to be the Family Zone sponsor this year. We hope to see
lots of children enjoying the River festival activities and entertainment."
The programme for the maritime extravaganza is still being finalised, but will
see a number of Tall Ships sail in to the City, which will join several military
vessels and research ships.
Thanks to its inaugural success last year, The British ThunderCat Racing Tour
will make a welcome return and where boats will be battling it out on the Mersey
reaching speeds of up to 65mph. Audiences can also expect the usual incredible
jet skiing, fly boarding, canoe polo and wakeboarding displays along with some
dry land exhibitions or unarmed combat and weapons displays and the Sea Cadets
will be performing their field gun window ladder semaphore and club swinging
activities.
The Northern Boat Show will also return for its 3rd year, running from Friday,
23 June until Sunday, 25 June 2017. It covers all aspects of the leisure marine industry
and there will be displays of power boats, cruisers, narrow boats, and sail
boats and features some of the biggest brands in the marine world such as
Bavaria, Beneteau and Dufour Yachts.
There will also be an exciting music soundtrack to the weekend, taking place on
stages located across the waterfront.
Full details of the programme will be released in April 2017.
Liverpool's Assistant Mayor and Cabinet Member for culture, tourism and events,
Councillor Wendy Simon, said:- "The Mersey River Festival is a much loved
part of our events calendar and draws in huge crowds each year.
It's wonderful that we can work in partnership with Merseyside based businesses
to contribute and grow the event, and I'm delighted that once again, 3 more
companies will have the kudos of being associated with this fantastic festival.
This year's festival coincides with Liverpool being the national focus for Armed
Forces Day, so there will be a unique dynamic to 2017's River Festival as the
City comes together to say thank you to all those servicemen and women who make
up the armed forces community."
The companies who received the naming rights in 2016 were Kier Group, Wilmott
Dixon and A&B Engineering.
For more information about the Mayoral 100 Club, can be found
online.
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