A new free three-day festival will take place in August 2015 celebrating all the city has to offer, from its thriving cultural scene to its bustling business community. Going by the name of Liverpool Loves, the event is the brainchild of Debbie Boyd, director of Orb Events which helped pioneer the successful Brazilica and Liverpool Pride.

We caught up with Debbie to find out more about what Liverpool Loves will bring to the city’s already vibrant calendar of events.

What prompted the idea for Liverpool Loves, and how long has it been in the pipeline?

Two years ago I realised that since we lost the Beatles festival there wasn’t a festival that wrapped Liverpool up in a big shiny bow to enable us to promote the city nationally and internationally. That was in the back of my mind and, as work took over, it fell by the wayside. However, during the International Festival for Business (IFB), people strangely started following the Liverpool Loves account on Twitter, prompting me to look again at the plan from not only a cultural and food perspective but also a business perspective.

In my opinion, the IFB was great for Liverpool but didn’t really touch on the wealth of fantastic businesses we’ve got in this city. There are loads of independents, they’re such a force. I don’t think there’s enough opportunity for people to showcase themselves.

Not only are we showcasing all of the city’s independents, social enterprises, community interest companies and small business owners; we’re also showcasing the brilliance of the cultural players we’ve got.

What will the key cultural features of the festival be and who will be participating?

We’re putting a circus big top on Pier Head showcasing the businesses we’ve got from a very practical sense – we’ve got some brilliant aerial performers and stuff like birds of prey performers. Cultural organisations are businesses as well, so there’ll be a good mix of nuts and bolts businesses along with the cultural businesses of the city. It sounds a bit bonkers but I think it’ll be really engaging.

Then on the festival day, I’m working with up and coming musicians so we can showcase unsung artists and give organisations such as dance schools and people doing amazing things a platform to perform in front of a big audience who’ll probably never have heard of them before.

Obviously there’ll be quite a lot of site animation. I was inspired by Glastonbury in the summer and I want Pier Head to be really dressed, colourful and engaging. I’m hoping it’s going to be very different from everything else in the city in terms of content and how it looks.

Is it going to be a waterfront festival or will there be a presence elsewhere in the city?

The title is a dream because Liverpool can ‘love’ anything. We had so many ideas of what we could deliver, such as ‘Liverpool Loves Nightlife’, ‘Liverpool Loves Education’ and Liverpool Loves Sport’. We hope to deliver all of these things in the future or as part of a fringe event. At the moment we’re doing an open call for organisations to get involved and we want to make sure every area of our city is represented.

What we’ve decided to deliver this time is not the be all and end all of Liverpool Loves. We’ve decided on four areas because, with it being the first event, we want to make sure we deliver titles with a wide appeal. Culture is wide in terms of appeal, food is a wide title and business was one of those things we thought was necessary. Wellbeing is another part of the festival we feel very passionate about, and will be the community activity part of the festival. Around the grassed area of Pier Head there’s going to be a lot of animation, tai chi by the River Mersey, dance classes and people getting involved from a community perspective.

Is the festival for the Liverpool community to celebrate its strengths or is it about showcasing the city to visitors?

It’s both. We’ve got get our house in order first and then when that’s a beautiful, really strong offering, there’s no reason why we can’t look to market this festival nationally and internationally. We’re legends in the world and there are still legs in creating something where people outside of the city will be interested to come and see what we’re all about. We’ve got an international festival of music and an international festival of business but what about promoting Liverpool internationally as a package?

What’s the long term vision for Liverpool Loves?

I think it should be a week-long event with fringe events throughout the city. We’re actually talking to Toxteth Fire Fit Hub about bringing the market from a big city centre festival perspective to support and promote events they’ll be doing under the banner of ‘Liverpool Loves Sport’.

I’d also like to do some activities in North Liverpool and the outlying areas of the region in the hope that we can support wider city initiatives. For instance, ‘Liverpool Loves Healthy Eating’ – there are lots of allotments and farmers’ markets on the outskirts of the city, and this could all fit under the title of Liverpool Loves.

I see this as a brand that can carry a lot of good initiatives for the city, not only in the centre but other areas to make them feel part of something.

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