The Liverpool Irish Festival kicks off this week, returning for the 13th consecutive year.
The event will take place over 10 days from October 15th to 25th, celebrating the finest in contemporary and traditional Irish culture and Liverpool’s unique relationship with Ireland.
This time round, one of the more futuristic attractions is the UK premiere of the ‘Meta-Perceptual Helmets’, which will allow festival goers to discover how the world looks from other creatures’ point of view at various venues.
In previous years, the event has attracted more than 7,000 people and this time organisers expect to see even more people join in the celebrations.
This year’s festival covers more cultural and diverse activities than ever before, being made up of more than 50 events in 30 venues across the city.
Organiser Laura Brown told JMU Journalism: “Liverpool is an incredible city to have arts and cultural festivals. There isn’t any fear about interacting with arts and culture, people will get involved and have a go.”
The programme covers music, art and design, film, food and drink and family events, plus a mixture of both traditional and modern Irish music.
Highlights include an ambient electronic music set at Leaf in Bold Street from Ryan Vail and Ciaran Lavery, who will perform their mini-album ‘Sea Legs’.
Elsewhere, The Philharmonic Hall hosts more traditional music from award-winning folk artists Róisín O and Dallahan in its new music room.
Laura added: “We very much wanted to reflect everybody’s idea of the Irish culture, so this year there is very much a beautiful blend between the traditional and the contemporary Irish and Liverpool culture.”
A full line up of the events is available on the Liverpool Irish Festival’s website.