Major cultural festival announced in Liverpool during Eurovision with call-out for artists and organisations to get involved!

Eurovision 2023 is just 171 days away and today plans have been unveiled for a cultural festival in the lead up the world’s biggest song contest.

The first plans for a major cultural festival to take place alongside Eurovision have been announced and artists and creatives from all competing nations are encouraged to get involved. 

It’s just over six weeks since Liverpool was named as the 2023 host city for the Eurovision Song Contest, staging the global event on behalf of Ukraine.

Today, the internationally-renowned Culture Liverpool team has begun to make its winning bid a reality by issuing a call out to artists, creatives, makers, musicians and performers for ideas towards creating an inclusive, thought-provoking, entertaining and diverse cultural festival in the lead up to May’s main event. 

The festival will include a series of commissions, events and installations which will celebrate UK music, Eurovision and most importantly, act as a platform for showcasing modern Ukraine – an ambitious, progressive country.

The commissioning call out is in three categories:

UK and Ukraine

These commissions will bring together Ukrainian and UK-based artists and producers to collaborate on creating new projects which capture the ambition and energy of modern Ukraine. Artists can come from any discipline, although there is a particular interest in large-scale outdoor works and installations.

Each commission must bring together a Ukrainian artist, creative or collective with a UK counterpart. Applications from Ukrainian nationals living in Ukraine or outside of the UK are welcome, and support will be given to match those individuals with a UK collaborator.

Music United

These commissions will celebrate the power of music to bring communities together. They will encapsulate the joy and congregation which music can bring across boundaries, ages and backgrounds.

Eurovision in Liverpool

These commissions will be a celebration of the joy, diversity of spirit, plurality of opinion and sheer fabulousness of Eurovision taking place in the heart of the UK’s most exciting city. They may draw on the history of the competition, or look to its future, or simply revel in what it stands for.

Anyone interested must:

• Have a history of creating high quality work of scale, ambition and accessibility.
• Be willing to work in collaboration with other artists and producers.
• Deliver breathtaking work in a short timeframe.

Applications are welcome from creatives who live in the nations competing in Eurovision 2023 and in particular from artists from Ukraine and from the Liverpool City Region. 

The deadline for expressions of interest is midday Monday 12 December 2022. Those successful in this first stage will be given an initial £2k funding to formally develop their proposal.  

The Cultural Festival has been made possible through support from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, and will include partners the Ukrainian Institute and British Council in the commissioning process.

For full details and information on how to apply, visit the Culture Liverpool website.

Information about Liverpool’s plans for the Eurovision education and community programmes will be announced in the new year.