Liverpool Celebrates with dBS Solutions

dBS Solutions Solutions where pleased to have been asked to provide full audio production for Liverpool’s new festival Liverpool Celebrates.

 

Reviving a Legacy: The Liverpool Celebrates Festival

The Liverpool Celebrates festival emerged from a desire to revive the beloved Mathew Street Festival, a cornerstone of Liverpool’s vibrant music scene since its inception in 1993. For many years, the Mathew Street Festival drew international crowds over the August Bank Holiday weekend, celebrating the city’s musical heritage. However, after its cancellation in 2013 due to rising costs and logistical challenges, the city sought a fresh approach to honor its musical roots.

In 2024, organisers reimagined the festival as Liverpool Celebrates, strategically held at the iconic Pier Head. This revitalised event focuses on celebrating Liverpool’s rich musical culture while ensuring a safe and secure environment for attendees. The festival features an exciting lineup that blends local talent with tribute acts, showcasing performances by artists such as The Jacksons, Holly Johnson, and Lightning Seeds, along with tributes to legendary bands like The Beatles and Queen.

Liverpool Celebrates not only pays homage to the original festival’s spirit but also brings the community together through a range of events, including Bongo’s Bingo and family-friendly activities. With its commitment to inclusivity and celebration, the festival stands as a testament to Liverpool’s enduring musical legacy

For this year’s Liverpool Celebrates festival, dBS Solutions played a crucial role in delivering a top-notch audio experience for an audience of 11,000. Our longstanding relationship with Event Design Co., which spans over a decade, set the stage for this collaboration. Event Design’s production manager, Josh Keogh, enlisted dBS Solutions Solutions to design a sound system tailored to the event’s unique needs. System designer Danny Clare crafted a comprehensive audio setup that included Martin Audio’s MLA system, complemented by side hangs of WPC and fill speakers of WPS. Notably, Danny also designed a cardioid broadside sub array to minimise stage noise, ensuring a pristine sound for both artists and attendees.

The waterfront venue presented its own set of challenges. Proximity to local residents and the open nature of the site meant that wind, particularly during Storm Lilian, posed a risk to sound quality. With winds reaching up to 69 miles per hour, the overnight setup required careful adjustments to maintain audio clarity. Despite the challenging weather conditions, both the acts and guest engineers praised the exceptional sound quality at both stage and front of house, as well as our team’s efficient changeovers. 

Feedback from the end client was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting our commitment to excellence, as did the off-site noise monitoring team. Event Design Co’s Josh said of dBS Solutions “All of your team are just fantastic, James (Roberts who managed the project for dBS) just kept everything in check and the event sounded fantastic, We’ve had so many comments from performers too of how well they feel they were looked after. All of your team are a real pleasure to work with”

Looking ahead, plans are already underway to make Liverpool Celebrates 2025 even bigger and better, and we can’t wait to be part of it again. Our team thoroughly enjoyed delivering such a significant event in our hometown, its definitely one of the highlights of 2024 and a great way to wrap up our busiest summer yet!

Pic: Emma Burnie