What’s On In Liverpool: Upcoming Liverpool and Merseyside Events
There’s rarely a quiet week in Liverpool. This page is where we round up what’s coming up, so you can sort a night out without trawling through six different ticket sites.
Theatre first, because the city is unusually well served for a place of its size. The Empire on Lime Street has the largest two-tier auditorium in the country, which is why the big touring musicals come here rather than skipping past. Ten minutes up the road, the Royal Court puts on eight shows a year written for a Scouse audience, mostly by Liverpool writers, and its Christmas productions are an institution. If you haven’t seen the likes of The Scouse Nativity, then you’re in for a treat.
The Playhouse and the Everyman take care of the weightier stuff in the city, whilst the Unity keeps the smaller and riskier work alive. Up on Hope Street, Philharmonic Hall is home to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1840 and the oldest continuing professional symphony orchestra in the United Kingdom. It isn’t all Mahler, either. Film screenings accompanied by a live orchestra, folk nights and comedy all end up in that art deco room.
Then there’s the scale of the place. M&S Bank Arena takes the arena tours, with the Exhibition Centre next door for funfairs, expos and the odd one-off spectacular. Anfield has turned into a serious summer concert venue since Bon Jovi played there in 2019, with Pink and three sold-out Taylor Swift nights in 2024. Everton’s new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock, the Hill Dickinson Stadium, holds nearly 53,000 and is already down as a host venue for Euro 2028. Aintree has the Grand National in April and Chester Racecourse is near enough to count as ours.
The waterfront pulls its weight too: cruise ships at the Pier Head often bring along numerous people to gawk at them, tall ships call in every now and then and whatever’s going on down at the dock that week is all worth checking out.
And not forgetting the festivals. Africa Oyé takes over Sefton Park every June, Creamfields fills the August bank holiday weekend and the Southport Air Show closes out the summer.
