Liverpool’s very first Music Month.is taking place across May.
Delivered by Culture Liverpool and Sound City, the event will see live performances, cultural events, and community activity take place across the Liverpool city region.
The inaugural Music Month will then transition into Liverpool Summer of Music, which runs until September, as part of a unique celebration of live music.
The programme is twinned with New York Music Month, an established fixture in its city’s cultural calendar which will feature 60-plus events when it returns this June.
Liverpool Music Month officially begins on Friday (May 1) with a huge range of gigs, new commissions, pop-up performances, and community-led events taking place.
Kicking off the programme, Sound City Festival will bring both homegrown and international talent to wider prominence over the weekend of May 2 to 3, 2026.
The Dark Reign Metal Fest also takes place at Birkenhead’s Future Yard on Saturday 2 May, and performances by Emmy Lou Harris, The Longest Johns, Kingfishr, Biird, Sunny Afternoon, James Morrison, and Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox are among those being spotlighted during the four-week-long celebration.
At the Liverpool Philharmonic, gigs across all genres will take place on most days, including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra’s Celebration of the Beach Boys, Roland Gift Presents Fine Young Cannibals, Max Cooper, and US acts Hannah Wicklund and Ondara.
Merseyside pop superstar Melanie C will also be headlining a series of performances at Jacaranda Baltic on May 1.
Wrapping up the month, Baltic Weekender is set to take over multiple venues across May 30 and 31, including Camp and Furnace and Brick Street, with a line-up of up-to-date house music, disco, techno, bass, and grime sets.
Sound City’s managing director Becky Ayres said: “We’re extremely proud to be part of delivering the first ever Liverpool Music Month.
“As a UNESCO City of Music, the world continues to look to us to protect our musical heritage as well as promote new talent.
“From the first rock and roll vinyl record arriving at the docks in the 1950s to the huge shows performed here by international artists such as Foo Fighters, the shared love of music extends across the Atlantic as effortlessly as it has always done.”
For full details of all live performances taking place across the month, including how to get your tickets, visit liverpoolmusiccity.com/whats-on.