New move to Bramley Moore Dock ( Vauxhall ) confirmed .
This article is from the Echo website :
Liverpool Sound City is to move from the city centre to a new site on the waterfront.
The music festival and conference will take place at Bramley Moore Dock, in Vauxhall, between May 21 and 24.
It will see the redevelopment of the dock, built in 1848, using existing industrial architecture and warehousing on the docks as venues, alongside pop-ups, big tops and tents with an outdoor main stage.
Sound City CEO Dave Pichilingi said: “Our goal year-on-year is to evolve, grow, challenge, inspire, surprise and delight. We have never been one to rest on our laurels.
“We often get compared to South by South-West, which is, of course, a great compliment but our aim is to become the best event in Europe. This seismic change moves us towards that goal.
“The Bramley Moore Dock site is quite literally incredible, at once a blank canvas but at the same time a powerfully evocative backdrop of the real Liverpool, its industrial heritage and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to breathe new life into the sleeping heart of this city.
“Ultimately, we have outgrown our old home. It will be sad to part with the people and venues we have worked with over the past years but we don’t want a situation where people have to queue to watch acts or, worse still, not get to see them at all.
“We chose the new site to ensure everyone who comes gets the chance to see and engage with everything.”
Early bird tickets are now on sale.
Head of marketing and sales, Alex Simmonds, said: “Sound City 2015 is going to be bigger and better. An awesome new site and lots more budget going into acts and audience experience. Our ticket prices are remaining the same, though. We might well be achieving the next level in the Sound City journey but we are most definitely not selling out.”
As well as a change of venue, festival organisers have also announced Liverpool Sound City’s first headliner for 2015, Belle and Sebastian.
The Glaswegian favourites will play on the waterfront open- air stage backed by a full orchestra.
Stuart Murdoch, of Belle and Sebastian, said: “We’re looking forward to headlining Liver- pool Sound City on May 24. This is the last date of our tour and we can’t wait to play at the Liverpool Docklands, it’s such an iconic location.”
With more high-profile head-liners to announce in the com- ing months, Liverpool Sound City is also keeping its focus on new and emerging Mersey artists.
The festival has previously provided a springboard for the careers of many now revered acts from Jake Bugg to Bastille to Royal Blood and aims to bring in artists and bands from across the globe. It is hoped the new venue will allow for more creative staging, with the possibility of floating platforms.
CEO Dave Pichilingi added: “The possibilities with Bramley Moore Dock are literally mind blowing. The ways in which we can harness the existing structures and how we use the lighting to pick out amazing industrial buildings are end- less. Then there is the water, not just the dock but the Mer-
sey itself.
“We have some big ideas, very big ideas, about how we’ll use the river and waterways, all to be revealed. Rest assured, though, it’s going to make Sound City one of the most unique and awe-inspiring festival sites in the UK, if not the world.”