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LIMF 2015 - Part 2
Photographs by Patrick Trollope.
THE Liverpool
International Music Festival (LIMF) took place over 27 August to 31 August 2015.
For those who remember the popular Mathew Street Music Festival, which was the
biggest free music festival in Europe, this streamlined and more cost effective
event still does not quite capture the same global appeal. It is early days and
this is an inherently different festival which it is still evolving. This year's
event on Sefton Park was also backed up by a few, small satellite events within
the City's theatres, like the event we covered in the previous
edition, at The Epstein Theatre, with the
legendary song writer and producer Lamont Dozier. These small events are a
fantastic idea, but combined with the event in the Park, as of yet, quite a few
businesses are asking where the benefit for local businesses is? Liverpool City
Council in many ways did do the correct thing in ending the era, by pulling
Mathew Street Festival, but the new event has already been scaled down to just 2
main stages, from 3 last year and, annoyingly, the problems that affected Mathew
Street are again starting to take root in the latest chapter music events within
the City. Sadly, we can't whitewash the fact that some kids and adults appear to
be hell -bent on misrepresenting the City and causing trouble. But they are a
very small minority, who showed at times, throughout the festival their ugly
heads, but this should not steal all the limelight, nor should the other small
problems behind the scenes. This event clearly does pull in the crowds still,
even with bad weather, be that more from the North West of England now, and its
fantastic news for the City. It is was estimated that well over 150,000 people
attended the shows over the 3 days hearing Labyrinth, Laura Mvula, Katy B, Becky
Hill, Alisha Dixon, Naughty Boy and Artful Dodger, The Real Thing and many
more.... Plus countless amazing less known acts who performed on the Band Stand
and on the Edge Hill Academy Stage. For us the best headliner was the legendary
local Liverpool Indie Rock group, who first came to prominence in the mid
1990's, Space. Space performed some of the group's most well known hit singles
that included:- 'Female of the Species', 'Neighbourhood',
'Avenging Angels' and 'The Ballad of Tom Jones' among
others. They performed as the last act on its Liverpool Stage. For many who were
able to get on to the packed out field, they fully eclipsed the very last band
of the event, Echo and The Bunny Men, who performed to a very raucous and often
hyper active audience, on the main stage, along with the support of the
Liverpool Philharmonic. Sadly, the last act did not quite go to plan, due to
artistic disagreements ending with a fantastic show of fireworks being set off
after the music had finished! One of the most interesting bands we discovered
was the last one to play at LIMF weekend, on the band stand, The Midnight
Ramble. That band was extremely tight and is one to keep an eye out for in
future… But it was not just music on offer, with a Skate Boarding Display taking
place throughout the 3 days, on the main field and dance acts, with the likes of
the Edge Hill Performing Arts Students on the Academy Stage area, this also had
many good surprises. We also have to give a big thank you to the main sponsors,
Red Square, who did a fantastic job keeping the media entertained and sheltered,
along with offering a very unusual bar service to the events' VIP's. Credit also
has to be given to St John Ambulance and to the Security groups, who all
performed amazingly well. As this event moves forward, it now needs to work out
how to recapture the all important international audience, along with delivering
more for local businesses. It is a huge task ahead, but if the problems can be
fixed quickly, the event has a lot of promise. To find out more about LIMF
please visit the events
website Also we have lots of photos on this
week's edition, that you can see via clicking on
here
and even more to go in next week's as well, so please keep looking as you might
be on 1 of the photos! If you attended any of the LIMF events, please let us
know what you thought of them via emailing us at:-
news24@southportreporter.com.
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