Organisers are getting ready for this weekend’s Cockermouth Live!
88 acts will perform at over 30 venues across the town in the four-day event, now in its 17th year.
Cockermouth Live! starts on Friday, July 2 and is run by volunteers. It transforms everyday venues – from pubs and churches to cafés, galleries, and even Cockermouth Castle – into performance spaces that showcase the best of local talent alongside acclaimed national and international acts.
Visitors can expect a mix of music, theatre, poetry, and pop-up entertainment, often spontaneous and surprising. It’s an eclectic mix of ticketed concerts this year, some of which have already sold out. The Kirkgate Centre will host Yoko Pwno a Scottish seven-piece who mix traditional styles with soundscapes reminiscent of dub reggae, as well as jazz supremos The Snake Davis Band full of saxes, flutes and whistles.
Jennings Brewery will host Sam Millne and the Virants and there will also be The Mechanics’ now annual concert picnic Brass on the Grass at Cockermouth Castle, plus Cockermouth Community Orchestra’s festival finale on Sunday evening.
New for this year is a collaboration with Cockermouth Music Society which is bringing The Paramount Brass Quintet to town and a collaboration with Cockermouth School to bring the annual Blues Night under the Cockermouth Live! umbrella featuring jazz, swing, rock and blues.
There also promises to be a number of new venues across town taking part as well as pop-up events right around town including the effervescent 12-piece street band BLAST Furness and the roaming Ship Piano with its musical captain.
There’s plenty for families to do, including printing workshops, a shop window instrument trail, drop in crafts and kite making, and The Music Garden and storytelling.
The town will also become a canvas for creativity, with the Meanders art trail winding through its streets, inviting audiences to explore and participate.
A new supporters scheme called Friends of Cockermouth Live! is bringing in new funding too, as is a fundraiser night called Delicious featuring talks with free samples by Andy Walsh of the Coffee Kitchen Bakery, Buster Grant of Jennings Brewery and Stephen Kidd of the Moon and Sixpence coffee house.
Over 50 musical instruments have been put into shop windows across Cockermouth to create a trail ahead of the festival/
Tom Speight, chair of Cockermouth Festivals Group, the charity which makes the festival happen, said: “Cockermouth Live! has to be one of the best weekends our town has.
“Having the instrument trail across town is a lovely way to promote the festival as well as create some fun for younger members of the audience and the festival is a chance for people to let their hair down and for audiences to have the chance to support some of the extraordinary local talent on offer.”
The festival is funded mainly through sponsorship as well as ticket sales for a few of the events and some grants, with over 50 volunteers providing the engine room to get the festival off the ground.
