The free sunny Sunday picnic bringing feelgood music vibes to Sefton Park

A new free pop-up picnic with DJs is bringing feelgood music vibes to Sefton Park every sunny Sunday.

Soul Train Picnics have turned the park by the Palm House into an outdoor party as crowds come together for an afternoon of old school tunes from the likes of Whitney and Luther.

Davy T, from over 25s bar Soul Train in Seel Street and in Waterloo, came up with the idea to recreate the feel of Liverpool’s famous Larks in the Park festival in the 80s.

He said:

“I remember the old Larks in the Park so I thought I want to do something like that where you just come with your food and drinks, you sit on the grass and you hear some music,”

“It’s so simple: no red tape, no fencing, no tickets, no £10 a drink. We’re not selling anything, or charging, it’s a picnic where we’re playing some songs. 

“People don’t have a lot of money at the moment, that’s the reality, and I thought, why does everything have to cost? I’ll do it for nothing and if nobody comes I’ll have had a good time anyway!”

Davy promoted the Soul Train Picnic on social media in the run-up to the first and realised the demand was definitely there.

But he says he wanted to make sure that not only was the weather right to launch it, but the location was too.

“I went round the park beforehand to look for the best place to do it because it’s important we don’t upset the residents,” he explains. “We did a sound check, put the speaker right in the middle, played it and walked up to the nearest houses and you couldn’t hear it. 

“Then we just waited to see what the weather was going to be like because that was the big thing. 

“I want to put an event on where I’m guaranteed sunshine and that’s basically impossible in this country. If you plan one outdoors for six weeks’ time you can’t know whether it’s going to rain or not. But because we only do it when it’s sunny, we can guarantee the weather. If it’s raining we aren’t doing it.

“There’s no booking and nothing in advance, we just say, ‘if it’s looking good for the weekend it’s on’ and then we confirm it on the Saturday because by then we know if it’s going to be OK. 

“Ideally we want a proper tropical day like last week and then we’re on.”

Unlike other festivals, Davy doesn’t have the overheads of a line-up of artists to pay. It’s the Soul Train team, him, CJ and Riz, DJing from a laptop and speakers with built-in powerpacks so there’s a minimum of set-up.

The first three Soul Train Picnics have been a huge success so Davy’s planning another on the next sunny Sunday, from 2pm to about 8-9pm, as long as the forecast stays good.

And he hopes the crowd for this one will be even bigger.

“People bring their own food and drinks if they want to, they bring the dogs and the babies. There was a family of four generations all there at the first one, it was just wonderful.

“It was all like-minded people, an older crowd and no scallies because they don’t like what we play.

“At the end we gave people binbags which we brought with us, and we’ll do that every week, so they cleared up all the rubbish.

“I had a great time, one of the best days since Larks in the Park. I loved it, a few drinks, everyone dancing, having a good time and seeing people I’ve not seen in years. It’s how it should be.”

Find out when the next Soul Train Picnic is taking place here.

Find more festivals and music events across Liverpool on our calendar.

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