Lost weekend (June 28-30)

THE PICK
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YOU really are missing a trick if you stay in watching Glastonbury this weekend. Especially when you can turn up to a gem of a music festival which is a firm date on the Lost Weekend/Liverpool Confidential calendar. 

For the past three years, former La’s man Mike Badger has been running a summer musical fundraiser at Shy Lowen, the sanctuary for horses in Thornton.

He happened upon Shy Lowen, which started life 13 years ago on an illegal rubbish dump, via a TV documentary about horse whispering. The sanctuary was set to shut, so the idea of a gig came to mind. Since it began in 2011, the fundraiser has garnered thousands of pounds for the charity and remains THE place to be on a certain Sunday afternoon in summer.

There is no massive Pyramid stage, no banks of Marshall amps at this rather magical, lazy annual happening. Best of all, there are no stallholders selling you overpriced falafel and dream catchers.

Not yet.

Instead there are plenty of bareback horses galloping through fields, providing a unique backdrop to a modest  stage which this year features acclaimed singer-songwriter and former Paul Weller bassist Edgar ‘Summertyme’ Jones, Shack guitarist John Head, ex-Tambourines man Steve Roberts, folk singer and playwright Lizzie Nunnery and course Badger himself.

I really doesn't matter who's playing. Bring lots of carrots, some picnic chairs and catch your own dream.

*Shy Lowen Music Fundraiser 3, Buckley Hill Lane, Thornton L29 1YB. Sun June 30, 2pm-9pm. £2 on the door.

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Eat without wheat
Thanks to much more sophisticated diagnosis techniques and heightened awareness, coeliac sufferers are being catered for - quite literally - much more readily and in greater volume.

The Liverpool Voluntary Support Group of Coeliac UK is hosting a food fair at the Old Police Station on Lark Lane this Saturday (writes Jopseph Viney).

It features stalls, contributions and raffle prizes from established gluten-free providers Glutafin, DS and Juvela. Other companies such as Tesco, Heinz and Pizza Express will be looking to provide attendees with food, freebies and information relating to the auto-immune condition.

But it’s not all corporates: local organisations, including Mello Mello and The Interesting Eating Company, as well as a professional dietician will be on hand to offer advice on ways of dealing with a condition that affects one in 100 people but still suffers from a low diagnosis rate of 15 per cent.

Coeliac disease symptoms include digestive problems, joint and/or bone pain and skin ailments.

It afflicts those who suffer an abnormal reaction to gluten; a substance found in wheat, barley and rye. So bread, pasta and biscuits are out. All lager, beer and a lot of spirits are also off-limits. The condition can leave sufferers with depression. No wonder.

Those diagnosed or just curious, young and old, are all welcome to an event that promises to promote inclusivity for food lovers everywhere.

*Coeliac UK Fair, Old Police Station, Lark Lane, L17. Saturday June 28, 1pm-3pm. Free.

'The quality of mercy...' That one
Outdoor theatre is the most accessible and historical performance style and is a memorable way to spend a summer evening.

So get to Frankby’s Royden Park and witness the final performance in a week-long run of The Merchant of Venice - and find out why Shylock the money-lender wasn’t such a bad old stick.

It’s produced by Hillbark Players, the original open-air Shakespeare company in the North West who have been going for almost 50 years. This year's compelling production, filled with the sublime poetry of love and bitter words of hate. Don’t miss it.

Merchant of Venice, Royden Park, Hillbark Road, Frankby, Wirral, CH48 1NP. Tickets, from £10 here

Get your corks out
Oddbins launched “The Palate” - its quest to find the best amateur wine tasters in the UK, earlier this month.

Great timing. A separate survey last week showed that professional tasters were completely in the dark, in every sense, when they were blindfolded and forced to put their money where their mouths were, throwing into question the whole “science”.

The Palate 2013 LogoNevertheless, Oddbins  say over 8,000 wine enthusiasts took part in the first round of their competition during the first two  weekends of June.

This weekend, Oddbins in Allerton Road, gives wine enthusiasts a wild card chance to enter the quarter final of  the competition – simply by taking part in a free and simple blind tasting. You could go into a national final and win an exotic holiday.

Probably best not to mention any of that stuff in the second paragraph.