Sefton will be The Borough of Culture in 2020, celebrations start this Friday in Crosby

Crosby Coastal Park is set to be lit up with an amazing light constellation and high-octane entertainment to signal the start of Sefton’s build up to the Borough of Culture.

The Borough of Culture (BoC) title is awarded by the Liverpool City Region’s Combined Authority to one of its six local authorities (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) on a rotating, annual basis.

2019 is currently Wirral’s year while 2020 will be dedicated to Sefton with a raft of new, existing and community led events planned for the year.

To start the build-up to Sefton’s year, a huge light constellation – Parabolic Lightcloud – will be switched on in Crosby Coastal Park on Friday, November 8.

This forms part of a Liverpool City Region arts project designed to inspire local communities to rediscover their local neighbourhoods and spend time stargazing.

On November 8, there will be an evening of activities including local bands, choirs, food-stalls and Spark! Spark! are a street theatre show performed by five to seven characters that combines high-impact drumming, dynamic choreography and beautiful lighting design.

The constellation will be located at the bottom of South Road, Waterloo and will be there all weekend (November 8-10) along with entertainment from 4pm-8pm each evening.

Cllr Trish Hardy, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Housing, is the main sponsor for the Borough of Culture year. She said: “As Wirral’s amazing year draws to a close, we can’t wait to receive the Borough of Culture baton off them and launch Sefton’s.”

“The Borough of Culture title for 2020 is one we are extremely proud of and can’t wait to showcase everything about our wonderful borough. The focus of our year will be on stories looking at two key elements, local history and the environment.”

“To start the build-up, an impressive light constellation will be switched on in Crosby Coastal Park in an evening of celebrations. This is open to everyone and I hope as many people as possible attend the event and marvel at the constellation.”

“If you can’t make the Friday, the display will be there all weekend and we want families and friends to get a photograph of the constellation and widely share it on social media tagging us in and using #Sefton2020.

“This is just the start of an exciting 12 months of cultural activities tapping into new, existing and community led events across the whole of the borough.”

Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, added: “Culture and creativity are integral to our vision of the city region as a prosperous, fair and exciting place to live, work and invest.  The Borough of Culture award and the Constellations project, which is taking place both in Sefton and our other five boroughs, are part of our efforts to boost involvement in culture and creativity across the whole of the city region.“

“Just as the Wirral is reaching the culmination of what has been a brilliant year as our Borough of Culture it is very exciting to see Sefton start the build up to their year in the spotlight.”

The Borough of Culture initiative is part of the Metro Mayor’s Culture programme for the Liverpool City Region which includes investment in key cultural projects such as £10.55m for the construction of the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot and £5m support for the Liverpool 2018 celebrations, which brought the Giants back to the city region for the final time.

This investment is in addition to the activity around the annual Borough of Culture celebrations, and the 1% for Culture initiative, which saw Liverpool City Region become the first in the country to commit to spending the equivalent of 1% of its annual £30 million devolution funding from government to stimulate cultural and creative activities.

Activities will start in Crosby Coastal Park at 4pm on Friday, November 8 with the constellation switch on at about 6.15pm. The constellation display will be there until Sunday, November 10 with entertainment planned from 4pm-8pm on all three nights (November 8-10).

The event is free to attend although there are drop off points to welcome any foodbank donations on any day for South Sefton Foodbank. Please consider using public transport to attend as well.