Day two of the festival around St George’s Hall was cancelled following ‘chaos’ on day one but a number of city centre venues and bars are offering music fans an alternative. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool’s music venues and bars have rallied round following the cancellation of day two of the Hope & Glory music festival.
Headline acts, including James and Charlotte Church as well as thousands of music fans, vented their anger on frustration on social media following the chaos of the first day of the event taking place around St George’s Hall.
More than 10,000 people faced long queues both to enter and to access refreshment and toilet facilities and there were significant delays to the performances, with Charlotte Church being forced to cancel her set.
People had travelled from as far afield as Hull, London and Jersey spending money on tickets, trains and hotel rooms.
However, as soon as Sunday’s event was cancelled other venues in the city invited acts from the festival to come and perform with offers from the Bombed Out Church, the Bierkeller and Magnet.
Both Clean Cut Kid and the Lightning Seeds will perform at the Zanzibar in Seel Street from 7pm and people with Hope & Glory tickets and wristbands are being offered free entry. Clean Cut Kid will play at 7.30pm and the Lightning Seeds at 8.15pm.
A number of bars including Revolution Wood Street, Ma Boyle’s off Water Street and Constellations in the Baltic Triangle are offering discount drinks to disappointed festival-goers.
Music fans were also being directed towards the Liverpool Loves festival which is also offering live music in the city centre.
Many people took to Twitter and Facebook this morning expressing at the chaos of Saturday and the Sunday cancellation.
At one point on Saturday organisers were forced to call on police to manage crowds who arranged an emergency queuing system.
On Sunday morning the Hope & Glory Twitter account posted two responses. The first said: “Following the unfair and vitriolic comments, some of us have decided not to proceed” and the second added, simply “no festival today”.
Later a statement from a PR company added: “We are hoping to have an official statement soon, but as of this moment, we don’t have any further information other than the fact that the festival has definitely been cancelled today.”
Promoter of the event is Lee O’Hanlon who runs a Birmingham-based events and PR company, Tiny Cow.
His latest blog on the company’s website offers advice on “what makes a great live show”.
He last spoke on Saturday evening to insist Sunday’s festival would go ahead but has yet to offer a response today.