Festivals and Events

Liverpool’s wide waterfront vistas, teeming streets and spectacular parks are the perfect backdrop to festivals, parties, carnivals and showpiece events.

BlackFest is one of our most stimulating events – a grassroots black arts festival that has quickly established itself as an essential celebration of music, film, visual art, spoken word and poetry.

As a thriving port, Liverpool has long been an internationally-connected city, and BrazUKa builds on the cultural connections between Brazil and the UK through workshops and community adventures that ignite creativity.

For almost four decades, DaDaFest has worked tirelessly to develop talent in disability and D/deaf arts. Its award-winning DaDaFest International blazes across the city every two years, showcasing the very best in art and performance.

Queer arts organisation Homotopia has been driving diversity and social change for years. Its annual Homotopia Festival takes over Liverpool every autumn, and is now the UK’s longest running LGBTQIA arts and culture festival.

Every summer, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival unleashes the sights and sounds of the Arab world across the city, celebrating the richness of Arab art and culture through visual art, music, dance, film, theatre, literature and digital technology.

The unique links between Liverpool and Ireland are the focus of the Liverpool Irish Festival. For ten days each October, the festival shares every shade of Irish art and culture – music and song, food and drink, and much more.

Liverpool loves Latin American rhythms, and with OLC Productions in the city, it’s no wonder. This hard-working production company runs La Bomba drum workshops, festivals and events – always exhilarating, and always rooted deep in the community.

Open Culture is an arts organisation that nurtures artists, connects with audiences, and produces creative projects from start to finish – from LightNight Liverpool to the Tickle the Ivories piano festival and the Summer and Winter Arts Markets.

Writing on the Wall is one of the UK’s most dynamic and diverse literary festivals. Its WoWFEST event is in May and Black History Month is in October, with both celebrating writing as a tool for social change.