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The Reader reveals spring season of events at Calderstones
The Reader is celebrating National Year of Reading 2026 with a series of events at its Calderstones Mansion base this spring. The spring programme takes place between March 1 and May 31 and includes literary events, wellbeing workshops, an Easter book hunt, Holi festival and Mothering Sunday celebrations, a four-week Deep Read and Mini-Movies alongside regular Reader events and classes. Holi at the Storybarn on Saturday, March 7, is a collaboration with MILAP (Indian Arts and
Five shows to see at the Floral Pavilion in 2026
Theatre audiences and fans of live performance are in for a treat all over Merseyside during 2026 – including at the Floral Pavilion. The New Brighton venue has lined up a programme of music, comedy, cabaret, children’s shows and drama for audiences to enjoy, including a return for acclaimed new Country musical Under the Mersey Moon and the unmissable Something About George which pays homage to the late, great George Harrison. Meanwhile there are plenty of other touring treat
LOOK Climate Lab aims to open eyes at Liverpool gallery
Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery has being turned into a lab this month where ideas around the topic of climate change can be explored and tested. LOOK Climate Lab 2026 runs at the Mann Island venue until to March 29, bringing together artists, activists and researchers and offering audiences the opportunity to engage with their work. The biennial LOOK programme explores how photography can be ‘a relevant and powerful medium’ in the conversation about climate. Projects being high
Africa Oyé announces first acts for 2026 festival
Africa Oyé has revealed its first two big name acts for this year’s music weekend in Sefton Park. Multi-award-winning Nigerian singer-songwriter Patoranking and Congolese collective Fulu Miziki will both appear at the Oyé in June. Patoranking, who is making his Africa Oyé debut, is described as a ‘visionary’ of the African music scene and cultural ambassador for Afrobeats, blending the genre with reggae and dancehall to create a unique sound. He is an MTV Africa Music Awards
Liverpool International Jazz Festival 2026 line-up
Liverpool International Jazz Festival returns next month with a line-up of music talent from the UK, Europe and the US. The annual festival, which began in 2013, will be staged at Liverpool Hope University’s Capstone Theatre between February 26 and March 1. Stellar jazz musicians and singers set to take part in the 2026 festival include Tim Garland and Geoffrey Keezer, David Helbock and Julia Hofer, Zoe Rahman and Arun Ghosh, Robert Mitchell's Little Black Book, Martin Taylor
Britannia Waves the Rules returns to Hope Street
A powerful and poignant play which takes an unflinching look at the challenges faced by working-class young men in Britain today is set to return to the Hope Street Theatre this month. Playwright Gareth Farr’s Britannia Waves the Rules received acclaim when it was staged at the venue last autumn. Now Wirral’s Off the Ground Theatre, which presented the original production, is bringing it back for three nights only, from January 14-16. Carl Jackson is a young man from Blackpoo
Top musicals coming to Liverpool in 2026
The news may feel unremittingly gloomy, so what better distraction from real life than the chance to immerse ourselves in the Technicolor world of stage musicals for an hour or two? The UK is rich with triple threat talent and a range of all-singing, all-dancing shows, and lots of them are heading for an auditorium near you over the next 12 months. Some – like Legally Blonde, Dirty Dancing, Little Shop of Horrors and Mamma Mia! - are dependable favourites, some are sheer musi
Comedians coming to the Liverpool Playhouse in 2026
Mike Wozniak heads for the Liverpool Playhouse to kick off a busy year of comedy at the Williamson Square venue. The Bench is a new stand-up show in which a story about a bench will be prominent. Previous experience of or strong opinions about benches not required. Catch Wozniak on January 23 and again on September 11. It’s Nameste from Omid Djalili on February 12 when he peacefully bows to his inner anger and unleashes a torrent of comedic vitriol upon the current state of
Cracking comedy to catch in Liverpool in 2026
Is everyone in Liverpool a comedian? If not, the UK’s unofficial ‘capital of comedy’ certainly punches way above its weight when it comes to knowing how to enjoy a good laugh. So it’s perhaps no surprise funny men and women from across the country – and beyond – are always keen to bring their live shows to the city. Along with bespoke comedy clubs and regular comedy nights, star names and rising talent also perform at mainstream venues like the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool Playh
Michael D Xavier on Poppins to Pie Jesu ahead of Liverpool Empire debut
He’s been in some of the biggest shows on both sides of the Atlantic – but for Michael D Xavier, his latest role takes him right back to the earliest years of his stellar stage career. In 2003, while he was playing the lovelorn young Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, he spotted a poster inviting people to take part in a reading for a new musical. “It’s more than 20 years ago now, so my memory is a bit vague, but I don’t believe they told us
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