There be pirates
THE Albert Dock is being seized by a horde of pirates this weekend.
Yes, the Liverpool Pirate Festival is back.You are invited to meet pirates from history and hear their tales of life at sea - but beware - Captain Jack Sparrow might burst through the seams of fiction for his own share of the limelight.
The docks will be booming with cannons and lively sea shanties performed throughout the day; keep an eye out for the birds of prey on display as well, they say.
Join in the fun and dress up; costume is encouraged, so start practising your Arrrrrrrrs!
*The Liverpool Pirate Festival, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st July, Albert Docks, 11.30am-5pm.
Village camp
With the festival spirit all over Liverpool this Saturday, The Village – English Summer Edition is the Camp and Furnace's latest answer to the season.
Fuck FameOn from 2pm until 2am, there will be constant live music from Johnny Sands (the one to watch), as well as folk acts Paul Straws and Highfields. The evening ends with a gig by hip-hop group No Fakin’ DJs. While you are listening, you can browse around the wide array of alluring displays of food, clothing and jewellery stalls from the likes of Fuck Fame and Haus.
The venue is indoors, so give yourself a break from the heat for a few hours. That's one way of looking at it anyway.
*The Village – English Summer Edition, Camp and Furnace, Greenland Street, L1, Saturday 20th July, 2pm-2am. Free.
Welcome to the House of Fun
SUGGS and the Nutty Boys are larging it at Haydock Park racecourse this Saturday night, so if you haven't got to a festival this year, here's the next best thing.
Doors open at 3pm, so you can have a few drinks and catch all six races. Madness will be performing at approximately 9.20pm, and are guaranteed to bring the house down after a sizzling day of fun.
The County Enclosure is already sold out, but tickets are still selling for the Tatts at £30 a head.
Worried about transport? The Peoplesbus can take you there and back for £8.90. It leaves Liverpool city centre at 4.55pm, and will head home 15 minutes after Madness finish their gig (at around 10.50pm).
Please note: Peoplesbus say they are not stopping for any toilet breaks the way back, so you know what to do - and that's not disgracing yourself, us, everybody.
*Live Music Race Evening – Madness, Haydock Park Racecourse, Saturday 20th July, 6.25pm-11pm. £30, £24 groups. Peoplesbus timetable and tickets here
Uke can do that
BEATLE George Harrison loved his ukelele, as did another George, Mr Formby.
So do thousands more and this Sunday Chester is staging its first Ukelele Festival Day.About time. It's so easy to play.
The show goes on all afternoon in the historic Northgate Quarter and the beautiful Rufus Court. Three outdoor stages will feature some of the North West’s top Ukulele artists including The Mersey Belles, The Cheese Cutters and The Wirral Ukulele Orchestra,
And to round off there will be a MASS BUSK at 5pm in the Bulmers Garden, where hundreds of ukuleles are expected to play in perfect harmony. Here is the set list, here are the chords!
Organisers say: "Don’t worry if you can’t play, we are holding FREE beginners workshops all day.
*Chester Ukelele Festival, Sunday July 21, 12.30pm, 6pm, Rufus Court, Nothgate, Chester.
The carnival is over - not
A definite can’t miss, this weekend is bound to be the best Brazilica Liverpool has had.
Block off Saturday because it is going to be a scorcher. See here.
However, if you are still going after all of that, join a few hundred parade performers and get merry at HAUS for the closing party and Latin music all through the night.
*Brazilica Closing Party, Saturday 20th July, HAUS, 10pm-4am. Tickets are £8. Buy them here.
Interesting gig of the weekend
See Those Naughty Lumps together for the first time in decades at McGuires Pizza place in Renshaw St. They are one of the founding fathers of the punk-esque boom of the late 1970s in Liverpool. Read here for the full story.
Follow Samantha Carr on Twitter here
