Five venues for you to visit in Liverpool city centre for LightNight
LightNight is Liverpool’s free one-night arts festival which is returning on Friday 21 May! The popular annual culture crawl will shine a spotlight on the city and our world-class artistic offers as over 100 organisations are collaborating to create an inspiring trail of events with talks, workshops, performance, music and more.
Liverpool BID Company have sponsored and supported LightNight since its inception, so to celebrate the return of LightNight we have listed 5 venues for you to visit as LightNight takes over Liverpool city centre later this week!
1) LUSH Building
Queer The City: Drag Cabaret at 5-9pm – In person and online
Homotopia presents Liverpool’s big mouth scouse singing sensation Phillipa McKrackin (aka Filla Crack) and some of the most stunning drag performers in the UK who will play, interact, and delight. Performances will take place outside LUSH on Church Street, with banging and energetic pop-up kikis on all evening.
A Homotopia and LightNight Co-commission, supported by LUSH and Liverpool BID Company.
Liverpool Biennial 2021 from 5-10pm – In person
Artists gathered in this venue employ different viewpoints and organisms to question, disrupt and explore what a human can be against a ‘neutral’ and universal designation.
Some of the artists explore ways in which our bodies are fluid, porous and interdependent – be it natural or artificial. Others confront historical corporeal constructions by amplifying experiences of those who have other bodies often located in a space of lack, in a place of disadvantage and subordination.
2) Liverpool Town Hall
Paint the Sky at 8-10pm – In person and online
Exploring the possibilities of play as creativity, Despite the Monkey invites you to join them in Liverpool Town Hall or online, as they enlist your help in constructing a digital mural of the city’s skyline.
Have fun colouring and decorating your own individual online tile as you help Despite the Monkey grow their stunning panoramic image of Liverpool over the course of the night.
The Game at 8-10pm – In person and online
LightNight are inviting you to play The Game. Choose to play a part or become a spectator. Choose to be the police, a politician, a criminal or a migrant. This is a chance to play, to explore your beliefs, express ideas and reposition yourself in our capsule society.
Your challenge is to move around the board and play your role with honesty and integrity. We challenge you through play to imagine the role of the other.
3) Bluecoat
Bluecoat Platform from 5-8pm – In person and online
Head to Bluecoat for an evening of fun on and around Bluecoat Platform – their new sculpture designed by Simon & Tom Bloor in collaboration with children from their Out of the Blue children’s programme.
Experience a range of family activities suitable for all ages around the sculpture come and get loud and colourful with Bluecoat! There’ll also be an opportunity to build your own miniature Platform to take home with you. There will also be activities available online, just in case you aren’t joining us in person!
LightNight at Bluecoat from 5-8pm – In person
Join Bluecoat for food and drinks from their cafe – served in their city-centre garden oasis, and a special late-night opening of current exhibition, part of Liverpool Biennial.
Take a look in Bluecoat’s galleries where they have Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary visual art. The 11th edition is titled The Stomach and the Port. Other artists exhibiting at Bluecoat include Jadé Fadojutimi who acknowledges the intimate connections between humans and nature.
4) St Luke’s Bombed Out Church
Lantern Writers Play Up at 5.30-7.30pm – In person and online
Play, it’s how we make sense of the world. The Lantern Writers are delighted to be back for LightNight with Play Up, a selection of fun sized plays, performed live at the fabulous St. Luke’s Bombed out Church.
Let The Lantern Writers take you on a journey to all these places, because after all, play isn’t just for children.
Playful at 4pm, 4.55pm and 7.20pm – In person
Young Everyman Playhouse (YEP) is a multi strand program based at the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres. YEP encourages the young people who have joined this important and valuable scheme to see theatre in a new light by asking them to create many exciting experiences for different audiences.
5) FACT Building
Heavy Gardening Art Trail at 5-10pm – In person
Heavy Gardening is a new trail of seven art works, running from Wood Street to Wapping Dock, produced by artist Andrew Merritt of Something & Son, in partnership with dot-art, Open Eye Gallery and First Take, as part of Liverpool City Council’s Urban GreenUP project which seeks to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change.
LightNight at FACT from 5-10pm – In person and online
FACT invites you to explore the galleries after hours, with a chance to see new immersive artworks as part of Liverpool Biennial as well as a collection of new and recent works by Liverpool-based artist, Kiara Mohamed.