LightNight Friday 17th May ….the ultimate To-Do List!
A jam-packed programme of cultural events will illuminate this city on the night, but I hope to illuminate my stomach first at the…. mouth watering-mix of culinary delights on offer in the restaurants, bars, hotels, and coffee shops from the Commercial District BID, hosting their Food and Drink Festival at Exchange Flags Square.
This will be my first stop to replenish the parts…..after a busy week, then there will be entertainment by RARE Studio and choirs singng from the balcony of the Town Hall to serenade all the connoisseurs of good food.
After last years LightNight travels, I’ve found that to reap the delights of the night, you need to be well planned and well timed in the events to enjoy it to the full.
The Black-E, Great George Street hosts carnival time with the fun loving Movema, Airborn and Brazuka, bringing you Brazilian samba drumming, acrobatic tricks and dance moves from around the world.
I might even throw in a ‘memory’ at the Transition of a Memory Workshop, if I remember.
A quick trip to the Candle-Lit-Labyrinth at the Anglican Cathedral will be relaxing before the next hike.
Next, a trek down Seel Street, through China Town and on to meet ‘Bookworm’ at Art House Square (near Fact) then into Fact for a glass of wine and a quick chill and another exhibition.
After a breather there, onto Wolstenholm Creative Space for ‘Drop the Dumbells’ then to The Bluecoat to enjoy all the free art offerings for the girls to upskill on.
Finally, we will end the night as always with an exotic coffee at Lunya and some Catalan fusion deli, washed down with a Spanish cava and a late night brandy with excellent conversation about the nights offering.
We always meet old friends and end up networking on these nights so if you are around….follow us on this night of adventure and ‘Do something different on a Friday night’
http://www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk
Cansei der Ser Sexy…14th May East Village Arts Club
Yes, Yes, Yes…..this is the Sao Paulo art-pop outfit that became known for bringing glitter and day-glow cat-suits to music festivals following the release of their debut album Cansei der Ser Sexy in 2006 and its follow up,in 2008. CSS are a group on fire and they certainly have fun on stage and well worth a visit for an awesome night.
This is Brazils most provocative, freewheeling, dance-rock sextet. A group formed in 2003, after meeting at clubs and through internet social networking, now hitting the international scene and doing really well.
Listen and see the group of girls perform ‘Echo of Love’ and ‘Red Alert’ and you’d see them again in a heartbeat! So much fun, you’ll have bruises all over your legs and arms if you dance near the stage- always the sign of a good gig.
Now after a three-year break CSS are back and ready to perform their latest album, La Liberacion at Liverpool’s recently opened East Village Arts Club.
If you want a mid-week dance, punk-reggae fusion then take a trip down to 90 Seel Street Liverpool 1 for La Liberacion.
Johny and Andrea’s Light Night adventures!
How good was Light Night? Bloody good, is the answer.
LightNight is Liverpool’s one-night arts and culture festival, which took place on Friday night. Over 50 city centre organisations kept their galleries, museums and venues open until late, staging around 100 special cultural events for visitors of all ages.
This year, visitors were able to enjoy the launch of LOOK/13 Liverpool International Photography Festival, the public reopening of Central Library as part of the In Other Words festival, spectacular light projections, street theatre, and a vibrant myriad of walking tours, open studios, live music, hands-on workshops and much more.
I set off on Friday night with Johny, my favourite plus one, Vickie, and him indoors to see what was on offer.
From there we pootled over to see Izzy Major from Hope Street Ltd performing the Open Culture commissioned “Bookworm.” Izzy was surrounded by books and positively encouraged audience participation, even getting Johny up to read from The Wizard of Oz to the delight of everyone who watched, if not Johny himself.
Johny becomes part of the performance. Bookworm by Izzy Major.
We headed over to the Baltic Creative to see Made Here, a pop-up shop selling locally made artwork and spent a lovely bit of time talking to Andrew Beattie of Give Me Soul Ltd about the upcoming Liverpool Craft Beer festival (more to follow on that one!) and Doctor Who. Always good to meet a fellow fan.
We then headed to cafe 51 just in time to see the wonderful Kaya Hersted Carney of the Science of the Lamps performing a fantastic acoustic set. With time running out to see more, we headed round the corner to Arena Studios, where Paul Bywater’s Sergio Leone inspired exhibition was on show. Pencil drawings of spaghetti western-style characters adorned the gallery’s walls, but were well out of our budget!
Blind portrait by Carol Ramsay
Arena always embrace Light Night and we’ve never left empty handed, and this year was no different. Johny won a trophy playing the rather existentially titled “Mystical Duck Portal of Fate” game, or “Duck Chuck” as my young Arena chum, Flynn calls it. then we had a blind portrait done by Arena artist Carol Ramsay, where I ended up with a rather fetching goatee, which Carol insists was my scarf!
We set off to Camp & Furnace and saw images from the LOOK/13 photography exhibition, including images form my Threshold chum, Michael Kirkham, who is the second most Googled Michael Kirkham on the planet, fact fans.
Edging our way past Camp & Furnace’s enormous bouncers, we sat down for a well earned rest and a little tipple while we listened to some good, old-school dance tunes. It was most definitely a night to remember.
Enormous thanks and congratulations go to everyone who pulled their guts out to make this year’s Light Night so, so good. You are all heroes in our eyes.
With apologies for the quality, here’s some pictures of the night. Can’t wait for next year.
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