The best things to do in and around Liverpool this year

By Laurence Thompson, Shannon Keating and Abi Whistance

Happy Sunday, readers, and a belated Happy New Year. The holidays are long gone by now, and we’re back in the swing of things. But Januaries can be tough. So over here at Post HQ, we’ve been beating the winter doldrums (or at least keeping them at a reasonable distance) by looking forward to the marvellous year ahead in Liverpool culture and nightlife.

Welcome to our master list of all the events we’re most excited for in 2025 (so far): concerts, museum exhibitions, food and music festivals, film screenings, readings and more. If you’re the type to make plans at the last minute and are hoping to be a little more organised this year, why not have a little gander through our selection, add a few dates to your diaries, and maybe pre-book a ticket or two. You’ll thank us later.

A quick note: you’ll notice the list is heavily skewed toward the first half of the year. As more events are announced in the future, we’ll update this post accordingly.

And of course, this is all only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the region has on offer. Aren’t we lucky?

Mulholland Drive at QUARRY – 22 January

Described as the only popular surrealist, the American auteur David Lynch — who died just last week at the age of 78 — was a sui generis filmmaker caught between the avant-garde and American Gothic and Transcendentalist traditions. To many, this was his greatest triumph: Mulholland Drive, a neo-noir starring Naomi Watts and Laura Harring. Queer community cinema group Paraphysis Cinema are screening this sapphic fever dream, with all profits going to the Quarry 2.0 Fundraiser.

Cléo from 5 to 7 at Fact – 26 January

The masterpiece of the late, great Agnès Varda, the French filmmaker who contributed to the 2018 Liverpool Biennial. This is just one of many brilliant films Fact has scheduled for the first quarter of 2025 — we’ve curated the best here for you.

Bedazzled at the Lady Lever Art Gallery – through 26 January

For any fashionistas out there who haven’t yet made it to this dazzling exhibition, you’ve not got much time left to waste. Bedazzled shines a spotlight on all things beaded, sparkly and sequined and their role in fashion history. Featuring garments from the 20s through the 80s, the exhibition charts the evolution of style and craftsmanship of opulent eveningwear.

Persona at Fact — 28th January

If you’ve never seen it, or even if you have, this is a rare chance to view Swedish existentialist Ingmar Bergman’s mind-bending exploration of identity, vampirism, duality, psyche, and isolation on the big screen. Often considered one of the greatest films of all time, this would make a fascinating companion-piece to Mulholland Drive, playing at QUARRY a week earlier.

The Last Dance at QUARRY, curated by QueenswaY – 31 January

Four of the most influential promoters on Liverpool’s nightlife scene — Danse Macabre, Cellar Door, QueenswaY, and PLUSH — have collaborated on this event to pay homage to QUARRY’s soon-to-close 17 Love Lane venue. Join DJ Fabrication, Cersy, Fend, Nace, and Sound of Drowning for “6 hours of mind bending dubby, percussive, experimental, bass-infused goodness”. Read Laurence on QUARRY’s closure here, then grab tickets to their last hurrah here.

Our top picks for the Philharmonic in 2025

It’s impossible to pick just one performance at the Philharmonic we’re most excited for this year. So here’s four of them:

• Mary Coughlin, often described as Ireland’s greatest female vocalist – think Edith Piad by way of Billie Holiday – performs on 18 April. Only a few tickets remaining.
• Baiana, the Brazilian-inspired project of Liverpool-born singer-songwriter Laura Doyle with percussionist Snowboy (who’s collaborated with the likes of Lisa Stansfield, Imelda May, and Amy Winehouse) gives a famously joyful and infectious performance. See them in action on 25 April.
• Stewart Lee, whom the Times worries that his once BAFTA award-winning style of comedy is becoming obsolete. Can Lee unleash his inner Man-Wulf in this brand new show and find his way back to the top? Find out on 6 or 7 May.
• The Guardian called Rich(ard) Dawson “Britain’s best songwriter”. His latest album is much more stripped down than his past work — revealing, according to the Philharmonic’s writeup of the event, “some remarkably poised, elegant and beautiful music”. He’ll be there on 22 May.

Tribute shows at Camp and Furnace – various dates

Camp and Furnace brings some of the best of the best tribute bands to Liverpool (among lots of other great performers). The tribute nights we’re most looking forward to so far: Weetwood Mac on 25 January, Just Radiohead on 11 April, and Kopycat Killers v Scam Fender v Subarctic Monkeys v Oasis96 on 7 November.

Aquarium keeper experience – 1, 22 February

The Living Centre at The World Museum recently welcomed a blue lobster rescue named Marge to their dynamic Living Centre, and she’s thriving in her new home so far! Make a date to visit Marge and all her underwater friends with the whole fam.

The Big Heat at Fact – 2 February

Fritz Lang is perhaps best known for Metropolis, the iconic 1927 science fiction film. But in addition to other German-expressionist classics like M, Dr Mabuse the Gambler, and Die Niebelungen, Lang worked for many years as a Hollywood director. One of his best from this American period was the brutal and beguiling film noir The Big Heat, starring Glen Ford, Gloria Grahame, and a terrifying Lee Marvin. One scene in particular is so shocking and violent, it’s unclear to this day how Lang got it past the Hays Code censors.

In the Mood for Love at Fact – 3 - 6 February

Aside from Mulholland Drive, Wong Kar-wai’s epic romance is perhaps the consensus pick for the greatest film of this millennium so far. A man and a woman, knowing their spouses are conducting an affair, grow close to each other. Wong explores their burgeoning relationship with delicacy and sumptuous imagery, creating a unique study in loss, betrayal, and the tantalising ache of unfulfilled desire.

Madame Butterfly (8 February) and La Bohème (7 February) at the Empire

This is a big deal. Ellen Kant, the award-winning producer, is returning to the Empire with not one, but two classics: Madam Butterfly and La Bohème. The cast includes top-notch international talent like Korean soprano Elena Dee, Ukrainian soprano Viktoria Melnyk, Georgian tenor Davit Sumbadze, and Armenian tenor Hovhannes Andreasyan. There will also be a full orchestra, of course.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Liverpool Olympia – 7 February

The mercurial (and controversial) American rock band are returning to Liverpool as part of their 2025 European tour. Frontman and multi-instrumentalist Anton Newcombe, who now exercises a dictatorial, Mark E. Smith-esque hold over the band’s direction and personnel, will surely want this live comeback to be memorable — for better or worse.

La Belle et le Bête at Fact – 9 February

If you only know the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, you’ll want to check out visionary French polymath Jean Cocteau’s genius interpretation of Charles Perrault’s classic fairytale. Cocteau — poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic — harnessed all his panache and avant-garde experience (the Orphic Trilogy is one of Laurence’s favourites) to craft this delightful, stylised, dreamlike but accessible fantasy. Don’t be intimidated by this capsule review — this really is a film everyone should see at least once, and preferably on as large a screen as possible.

Writing on the Wall’s Pulp Idol Finals – 21 February

Writing on the Wall grew out of the Liverpool Dockers Strike in the late 90 with the simple but revolutionary belief that writing can transform communities as a form of therapy and resistance, as well as a means of inspiring change. Their annual literature festival, WoWFEST, runs for the entire month of May, bringing national and international writers and artists to the city for a variety of performances and projects. We can’t wait for WoWFEST this year; Abi went for the first time in 2024, and one of the events, a tribute to the late, great writer Benjamin Zephaniah, moved her to tears.

If you’re too excited to wait until May, check out the final for WoW’s Pulp Idol competition, which has been spotlighting the best upcoming writing talent in Liverpool for the past 17 years. ON 21 February, 12 finalists will be battling it out for the top prize.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula at Fact – 22 February

For those who were baffled or beguiled by last year’s Megalopolis or this year’s Nosferatu, why not see Francis Ford Coppola’s take on the Dracula mythos on the big screen? This adaptation, which critics and audiences didn’t know what to make of when it was first released in 1992, has attracted a growing cadre of admirers in recent years, and some to this day consider it the Godfather director’s final masterpiece. Dracula’s groundbreaking practical effects by Coppola’s son Roman are worth the price of admission alone.

Adelle Stripe at Waterstones – 24 February

With Tony O’Neill and now-husband Ben Myers, Tadcaster’s Adelle Stripe was a founding member of the Brutalist poets. In recent years, she’s become better known for Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, her biographical novel of working class playwright Andrea Dunbar (more on her below) which was adapted by Lisa Holdsworth into a successful stage play. Now, Stripe has written her memoir Base Notes, which she’ll be discussing at the Liverpool One Waterstones.

She Drew the Gun at the Arts Club – 28 February

Wirral-born Louisa Roach is the incredible mind behind She Drew The Gun, a project that “fully lives up to its incendiary name”. Informed by influences from 80s electronica to political poetry to cosmic scouse psychedelia, this is not a show to miss.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at Fact – 5 - 6 March

Every ten years, Sight & Sound magazine polls critics and filmmakers to approximate the greatest film of all time. Chantal Ackerman’s slow-moving 1975 portrait of a Brussels widow raised eyebrows in 2022 when it succeeded Orson Welles’s long-reigning Citizen Kane and Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to the crown. A paper champ, or does it merit the hype? We think a viewing is best attempted in a cinema, where the requisite darkness and lack of electronic distractions will best focus the mind on this fascinating if — to some — frustrating film.

Conversations at Walker Gallery – through 9 March

We’ve been meaning to check out this ambitious exhibition ever since it opened last autumn, and putting together this list might finally be the impetus we needed. The collection brings together work from 40 trailblazing Black women and nonbinary artists who are transforming the landscape of contemporary British art. Expect paintings, sculptures, videos, and much more in celebration of these artists’ contribution to the modern art world.

Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Shakespeare North – 12 March, 20 March, 15 March

We love a good modern interpretation of the classics, and this brand new show sounds like a particularly good time: Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s riotous comedy, is reimagined and reset in the nineties, which means over-the-top music numbers from some of the biggest boy and girl bands of the era. You’ve got a few different options to enjoy this show depending on your needs and preferences: relaxed performances on 12 March and 20 March, an audio-described performance on 12 March, and a BSL-interpreted performance on 15 March.

Phil Maxwell photography exhibition – through 16 March

Phil Maxwell moved to Liverpool in 1972, and after working as a teacher he became a professional photographer. Now, he and his partner have curated his exhibition of black-and-white street photography, mostly of Toxteth, Wavertree, and the Pier Head, taken from the 1970s onwards. If you book a ticket, the location in South Liverpool will be disclosed, and admission is free.

Rita, Sue, & Bob Too! at the Liverpool Olympia – 9th - 12th April

Andrea Dunbar’s 1982 play, about a ménage à trois between a married man and two teenage schoolgirls, was famously adapted to film by the Wirral’s own Alan Clarke in 1987. Loosely based on Dunbar's experiences growing up on a Bradford council estate, as well as “two raucous girls she overheard in the ladies' toilet at Keighley Market”, the film was a kitchen-sink success. Dunbar, though, was dissatisfied by Clarke’s re-tweaking of the text, calling the upbeat ending a betrayal. Regal Entertainment are confusingly marketing this as a “stage version of the 80’s cult movie” rather than a revival of Dunbar’s real play, so expect the Clarke version to win out. Still, the precocious talent of Dunbar — who wrote her first play at 15, and tragically died of a brain haemorrhage in her local pub at the age of 29 — still sparkles in the play’s dialogue to this day.

Dark Reign at Future Yard - 3 May

Birkenhead’s Future Yard, one of the most exciting new music venues in the UK, is a gift that keeps on giving. The 280-capacity space has been bringing some of today’s best local and international talent to the Wirral since opening in 2021. After the enormous success of last year’s metal festival, Dark Reign, this all-day celebration of the genre returns this May.

Bees: A Story of Survival at the World Museum – through 5 May

Like you’ve never seen them before. These fascinating little creatures have been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth, and they’ve adapted for 120 million years since. But climate change is now threatening this long-surviving species, which humans rely on for our own survival. Learn all about them in a series of interactive displays, sculptures, projections and more. Liverpool city region residents get 25% off their ticket price through the month of January with the code LCR25.

Wirral Family Festival – 11 May

The events team behind Liverpool Comic Con, which both Laurence and Abi enjoyed attending last year, are bringing the Wirral Family Festival to Prenton Park for a full day of tribute bands across a variety of genres. Tickets here.

Liverpool Restaurant Week – 12 - 18 May

The best way to explore the city’s fabulous culinary scene without breaking the bank. Enjoy your old favourite spots and discover new gems during one of the tastiest weeks of the year.

Clubnight Otra by local DJs Dharma Collective and Robasca – TBC

We’re positively jumping with joy over the return of this iconic clubnight, which last year brought the likes of NTS royalty Ruby Savage and Mexican selector Coco Maria to the city. We can't wait to see what Otra has in store for us this spring – dates to be announced, so keep a lookout on their Instagram for updates.

Southport Food and Drink Festival – 30 May - 1 June

This free event is the perfect way to welcome the summer ahead, with a little something for everyone. Head on over to Victoria Park for food and drink from around the world and performances from local bands and musicians.

Baltic Weekender – 30 - 31 May

New stages, new venues, and new acts for 2025 – all to be announced, so keep an eye out.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band At Anfield – 4 June

Still a few tickets left!

Liverpool Biennial – 7 June - 14 September

The UK’s largest free festival of contemporary and visual art has been running for over two decades, during which time the biennial has commissioned hundreds of artworks and dozens of collaborative neighbourhood projects.

The Wombats on the Waterfront – 19 June

The icons of late-noughties indie rock are coming home for their biggest Liverpool show to date. Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy, Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis met as teenagers while studying at Liverpool Institute of Performing Art, and they went on to become one of the city’s biggest cultural exports in recent memory. ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’, indeed.

Father John Misty at the Liverpool Olympia - 27 June

Shannon’s particularly excited for this one; she danced to Father John Misty’s achingly romantic “Real Love, Baby” at her wedding.

Lana Del Rey at Anfield – 28 June

There’s only a few tickets left (and all of them are stupidly expensive), but if anyone sees a good deal on the resale market, please feel free to give shannon@millmediaco.uk a friendly heads up.

Arab Arts Festival – July, TBC

The UK’s longest-running festival of Arab arts and culture, founded in 1999, returns this year to encourage exploration and celebration of traditional and contemporary Arab art.

Billy Ocean at Salt and Tar – 7 August

The biggest selling Black British artist of all time heads to Bootle this summer. The venue has previously hosted acts like Tom Jones, The Farm and Red Rum Club. There’s also plenty else on at Salt and Tar throughout the year: a comedy festival in May, a food and drink festival in July, and more.

Tribute to the Mathew Street Festival – 25 August

A tribute show to a tribute show! When the Mathew Street Festival ended in 2014, many locals and visitors sorely missed this huge annual live music street party, which by that point had been running for twenty years. Last year, the city presented its first tribute to the festival, and it was so successful it’s returning for another year. Tributes to Cavern Club favourites will be playing at the Pier Head.

Future Now 2025 - August bank holiday weekend

The biggest date on Future Yard’s calendar and one of the best events of the year returns for not two, but three nights over the bank holiday weekend, spotlighting three separate headliners taking over the outdoor arena, plus lots of local, national and international acts heralding the future of music in Merseyside. A limited number of Early Bird tickets are on sale now.

Bootle Country Music Festival - 6 September

The Lock & Quay is Bootle’s best loved (and only) micro brew pub. It’s also owned and managed by the community, with all profits reinvested back into the neighbourhood. They put on lots of great events all year, but we’re particularly excited for the Country Music Festival — something a little different.

Southport Comedy Festival - 3 - 9 October

Consistently delivering the best standup for years now, vouches a Post reader. The festival returns for a fourth time this October.

Liverpool Irish Festival - 16 - 26 October

Ten days celebrating Irish arts and culture: film screenings, exhibitions, music, dance, discussions and more. Check back to their website for updates on the full program.

What events are you most looking forward to in 2025? Did you spot any glaring omissions from our list? Let us know in the comments. And we’ll see you out there!