Liverpool’s Summer Pops Music Festival has been forced to downsize this year, due to less artists being available because of other large European events.
After being held at the Echo Arena since 2008, and sometimes comprising more than 20 events, the festival has been reduced to a handful of shows at the Philharmonic Hall for 2012. As well as giving music fans less to choose from, the Philharmonic also holds only a fraction of the Echo Arena’s 11,000 capacity.
The festival has attracted legendary acts such as The Who, Sir Elton John and Bob Dylan in the past, but has found it hard to entice names of the same calibre, with Jools Holland and Brit Floyd being the only confirmed performers for this year.
The festival was formerly held in a big-top tent, and organisers CMP Entertainment have said that the festival could make a return to that venue, which had proved a hit with performers and fans.
Chas Cole, from CMP Entertainment, told JMU Journalism: “To be honest, the Summer Pops has naturally shrunk in size since the Echo Arena opened in early 2008. Before that the Summer Pops Big Top was the only sizeable performance space in the city.
“Now that the larger artists can visit Liverpool 12 months of the year there are usually less artists available for us to book in July. On top of that we have less artists touring this summer; the recession; the Euro Football, and also the Olympics. All of this makes it more difficult to successfully book a large number of shows.
“Regarding the future – I’m not sure. The new Echo Arena is great but the Big Top had a unique atmosphere and I may try and bring the Big Top back for 2014. Watch this space.”