Stand Up For Southport Blog by Andrew Brown
Southport is bursting with arts and culture this year – and there are lots of ways for people to get involved.
The creative talent in the Southport area is what makes the town sparkle in the North West.
Nowhere else in the region does creativity like our town, and it’s no wonder when you have such an inspiring backdrop of places like our coastline, our parks, the Marine Lake, the stunning architecture of Lord Street.
Stand Up For Southport is keen to do all we can to help provide a platform for the creative talent we have out there.
In addition to our Stand Up For Southport website we also have over 71,000 local followers on our social media platforms, including over 45,000 people in our Facebook group and nearly 10,000 people on our Instagram page.
Are you a local artist, or photographer, who would like to grow your audience to show off your talent? Please make the most of our platform.
We want as many people as possible to see Southport how it should be seen – as a place where people can come and enjoy great experiences, whether it’s through the unrivalled scenery, or through the art on show, the live music, huge choice in local theatre, the superb places to eat.
You’ll recognise many of the creatives we have, through our features on the likes of Nasro Mo, Ruth Ryder, Emmeline McLoughlin, Tony Wynne, Paul Curtis, Clare Wright, Melanie June, and more.
We love sharing their stories and putting them in front of wider audiences.
When vibrant arts events take place, you’ll be able to find details in the What’s On section on our website, along with pictures and video taken at the events themselves.
What’s happening at venues such as The Atkinson; Southport Little Theatre; Southport Bijou Cinema; Southport Market and elsewhere frequently feature on our pages.
We are directly supporting events such as the new Southport Arts Festival, which will take place in venues around Southport this August.
We are part of the committee supporting the ever growing North West Armed Forces Festival.
Stand Up For Southport provides PR for major events such as Southport Comedy Festival, Southport Flower Show and more, and also to Southport BID as they stage Christmas activities, dinosaur attractions and Bear Hunt trails, helping to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors into our town.
We always provide extensive coverage of huge local events including the British Musical Fireworks, Southport Air Show, Southport Classic and Speed, Southport Jazz Festival, Wind Rush, Southport Armed Forces Day, Southport Seaside Weekender, Sefton Pride, Salt and Tar’s Comedy Weekender, Southport Pleasureland’s Mexican Festival, The Smile! Event.
We are proud to co-organise the annual Grand Pride Of Sefton Awards alongside Mikhail Hotel & Leisure Group with support from In Demand Radio.
Our categories include the annual Sefton Arts Award sponsored by Fitton Estates, which last year saw awards going to Red Rum Club, Abbie Billington and local guerrilla artists, the Southport Hookers, a group whose vibrant work we champion constantly.
But this is just the start. We are seeing an explosion in arts and culture talent across Southport.
We have seen the opening of three new art galleries in recent weeks – Clare Wright on Lord Street; Grand Searl & The Northerner in Wayfarers Arcade; John Charles on Union Street.
Work on the £73 million Marine Lake Events Centre will add an impressive new arts space for our town.
The transformation of Southport Market Quarter will provide a platform for brand new outdoor events, with the first ones already being planned.
There is a huge amount of work being done at Wayfarers Arcade with their ‘Creative Village’ initiative creating new events and attracting new arts theme businesses to open inside the arcade.
If you have any artistic work you’d like to share with local people – please post into our Stand Up For Southport Facebook group or on our Instagram page at any time, or message me with any news.
Southport really is fast forging a reputation as the North West’s home for arts and culture.
We’re proud to be able to give that burgeoning talent a platform through Stand Up For Southport.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Do you need advertising, PR or media support? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrownn@gmail.com
