Liverpool Sound City 2018 - Photo Review

This year Sound City went back to it’s roots of hosting the festival in a variety of small and quirky venues, with less “big name” acts, focusing more on lesser known acts who deserve to be better known. This year all the venues were located within the Baltic Triangle area, with the likes of Constellations, Unit 51, District, and newer venues at the old Cains Brewery. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect!

I must admit I quite liked the docklands site, the feel of being at a big festival, but without the long journey or camping, not to mention the obligatory daily trip to Sans Diner (run by a wonderful character, big portions, tasty food and cheap prices!), it was a little bit of a way out, but no more so than the Invisible Wind Factory for example.

But I seem to be very much in the minority, as just about everyone I spoke to preferred the old format, and to be fair, I won’t miss the occasional dust bowl we had last year when the wind got up! I loved the old format too, basically as long as there are decent bands on, I’m happy!

Unfortunately I couldn’t attend this year’s festival due to family commitments, but reports I’ve heard have been overwhelmingly positive. The only slight negative I’ve heard a few people mention is that the Cains Brewery venues were open to the public, without requiring wristbands, which meant that some acts got overcrowded, whilst others the vibe was damaged by people who didn’t want to listen to the band. But with a festival on this scale there will always be teething troubles, and if nobody had anything bad to say then I’d wonder if they were just in that post-festival high state where you genuinely can’t remember any negatives. If that was the only fly in the ointment, then that’s pretty good going!

Judging by people’s responses on Facebook, I’d say the lineup was particularly well received, with as ever a great eclectic mix of talent from across the world as well as around the corner.

Fabulous photographer and all ’round top bloke Mark Holmes took his camera along with him and caught these excellent photos for us, enjoy!

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