More than 80 music artists to play free gigs in Wirral as West Kirby Live returns

More than 80 bands and singers are set to play free gigs across outdoor and indoor stages this weekend as West Kirby Live returns.

It will be the first summer date for the popular Wirral music festival since 2019.

This year’s West Kirby Live, on Saturday June 7, will centre around Coronation Gardens where there will be two stages, plus eight other venues in town.

And, as with previous events, it will be raising money for a local charity – this time it’s Maggie’s, which supports people going through cancer and their families.

Live music will start at Coronation Gardens from 10.30am with young people’s performances including dance and drama groups and singers, before the Rock Choir is the first act kicking off the afternoon/evening line-up from 12 midday until 8pm.

The other venues will have artists on the hour, every hour, from 2pm until closing time. The Wro, The Tap and Grand Ave are three neighbours on Grange Road which are taking part, as well as the White Lion, Black Lodge, Wild Inn, Monty’s and Slinky’s on Banks Road.

West Kirby Live was started in 2016 by musician Tom Longman who was inspired by the Oxjam Festival that used to take place in Hoylake.

He said:

“It was great when you had a full day of music in all the bars in Hoylake so I wanted to do something similar in West Kirby,”

“We had the first summer event in June 2016, taking over about nine venues in West Kirby and raising money for Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

“Then in 2017 we added an outdoor stage, the following year we added another outdoor stage and more venues, and 2019 was the last summer one we did, with two outdoor stages at Coronation Gardens and loads of venues in the town.

“After that year I decided to take a bit of a break, and then Covid happened, but I was always being asked when it was coming back so I did a winter weekender in 2022 for Wirral Foodbank.

“It was when the cost of living was really kicking in and foodbanks were getting fewer donations, so we managed to take in hundreds of kilos of donations and give the bars a boost because they’d been struggling after Covid.”

With his wife expecting a baby, Tom decided to take another break from organising the festival, but when he was contacted by a mate about putting something on again, they decided to work together and bring back West Kirby Live.

In addition to planning the venues and line-up for this year’s event, Tom will also be performing on the outdoor stages with two bands.

He’ll play drums with four-piece The Last Shanty on the Specsavers stage then run over to the 4Sure stage to play uke and sing with covers band Beating Sleepers. They’ll also be playing later in the evening at The Wro so, having arrived on-site from around 8am to help put up marquees, he’s got a busy day planned.

As well as almost 90 acts scheduled, West Kirby Live is a family-friendly event so there’ll also be lots of kids’ activities in Coronation Gardens including an owl sanctuary, silent disco, character visits, arts and crafts, games and challenges.

And, if anyone gets hungry going from venue to venue listening to the live music, Tanskeys in the park will be serving Mexican street food along with other vendors, Wild Inn will have an outdoor grill and there will be food at most of the other venues too.