Liverpool City Council has today announced that the hugely popular Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) will be taking place earlier in 2016.
For the last three years LIMF Summer Jam – the free Sefton Park element of the festival which sees household names and up and coming acts perform – has taken place across the August Bank Holiday weekend.
A huge success year on year, organisers have made a decision to maximise its potential by moving it to a festival-free weekend and it will now take place from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 July.
LIMF Curator, Yaw Owusu, said:
“LIMF is an established event and people are used to it falling across the Bank Holiday Weekend.
“LIMF 2015 was the most successful to date, with over 160,000 revellers making the most of the five day festival.
“However, we believe we can better maximise the potential and impact of this event by moving dates – strengthening our position within the wider regional, national and international festival offer.
“The current quality of festivals across the UK is outstanding and LIMF has fortunately managed to improve its offer year on year. We’ve been really adept at showcasing the likes of Basement Jaxx, Labrinth, Katy B, Damian Marley and Echo and the Bunnymen in the past, alongside some really outstanding new bands and commissioned projects.
“We are focusing on quality, positioning, return on investment and driving visitors to experience our city, so this means the period we host the festival is vital. After looking at various dates, we believe the weekend we have chosen is ideal. What better way is there to kick start the summer holidays?”
Cabinet Member for Culture, Tourism and Events, Councillor Wendy Simon, said:
“LIMF has become a staple in Liverpool’s events calendar, but as with everything we stage, we always try to improve on it year on year – and we can achieve this with the date change for LIMF.
“Staging an event across a bank holiday means the city is forced to pay a premium for services and infrastructure, so if we can save money on these elements, it means we can invest more in the event itself and make it an even better experience for the tens of thousands of people who enjoy it each year.”
LIMF 2016 will focus on the theme of ‘Redefinition’ and will once again be comprised of LIMF Summer Jam in Sefton Park, the LIMF Commissions and the LIMF Academy.
LIMF 2015 successes:
• Attended by 160,000 people
• LIMF website itself (www.limfestival.com) received 940,000 hits
• The LIMF App, which gave full line-up details, had 5,850 downloads
• The LIMF Twitter account reached 61.8million people
• ‘Likes’ on Facebook and Instagram followers doubled compared to 2014
• The total value of media coverage the event received was in excess of £11million with an audience reach of more than 85 million
And continuing the success, LIMF was shortlisted in the Best Family Festival category by the UK Festival Awards, and the event is currently in the running for two more of these prestigious awards – Best Festival for Emerging Talent (for LIMF Academy) and The Extra Festival Award (for commissions) which will be decided by industry experts.
Partners for LIMF 2015 were Spotify, PRS, BBC Introducing, UK Music, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Red Square Vodka, Merseytravel, Merseyrail, Edge Hill University, Mountain Dew, Juice FM, Liverpool Echo and Radio Merseyside.
For the latest LIMF information visit www.limfestival.com
Alternatively follow @LIMFestival on Twitter or Liverpool International Music Festival on Facebook.