As summer comes to an end, the leaves fall from the trees, the shorts are swapped for scarves and meticulous planning goes into the annual winter coat.
Autumn is a special time of year, it is almost like nature’s grand finale of vivid colours before everything becomes covered in white. Hopefully. The crunch of the crisp leaves beneath your shoes that shower the streets and the time of the year the coffee and tea take a back seat for a hot chocolate. From putting on your scariest mask to watching bonfire displays, we can all agree this time of year is a treat and who could forget all those hours spent playing conkers. Autumn is a great season to do things in Liverpool and we’ve compiled a list of a few musts.
Witness The Giants
There are just a couple days until Giant visitors will walk the streets of Liverpool and Wirral (Thursday 4 to Sunday 7 October) – in what will be the final in the trilogy of Giant spectaculars. For this latest instalment, the world-famous street theatre company Royal de Luxe, from Nantes, wants to keep the event shrouded in mystery so will not be revealing which Giants are heading to our shores just yet. More here.
Go And Eat Your Bodyweight In Hallomi At Hafla Hafla’s New Restaurant
Famed for their halloumi fries, Hafla Hafla started in a kiosk in Baltic Market but they’ve taken the giant leap to opening their own restaurant on Lark Lane. Perfect timing to put on layers for the harsh winter. They’ll be open sometime in October, please do support them.
Revisit An Old Friend For A Cup Of Coffee
The whole city was in mourning when landlord disputes led to an extremely abrupt closing on Bold Street but fear not, the city’s favourite cup of coffee will soon be back. After a successful Kickstart, Bold Street Coffee have the keys back and they’ve promised us much of the same great coffee and vibes but to expect loads more. We’re dead excited, as should you be.
Go To The Theatre
Liverpool is just like a walkable London, we have all the culture you’d need without the teeming tubes. Everyman & Playhouse, Unity Theatre, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Court, Epstein Theatre and so much more. You aren’t shy of places to enjoy plays, pantomimes or musicals. Escape the weather, grab yourself a red wine and prepare to be entertained. Now that’s how you do autumn properly.
Find Out Who has The Waggiest Tail At The Mowgli Trust Dog Show
On September 23rd from 11am onwards Mowgli are stepping out of the kitchen and stepping in to the beautiful Claremont Farm all in the name of raising money for Claire House Children’s Hospice and helping raise vital funds for the brilliant work they do. Lots of awesome food, kids areas, dog competitions and more – put this in your diary.
Pumpkin Picking
Stuffing your face full of sweets that were specifically meant for trick and treaters is great and all but we all know the greatest tradition is carving the pumpkin. A meticulous task that comes with immense responsibility. Here’s a few places you can pick up some pumpkins this year: Claremont Farm, Poplar Farm, Church View Farm and The Pumpkin Patch in Hightown.
Get Cosy In A Georgian Quarter Pub
There’s something about The Georgian Quarter in the Autumn that we just can’t get enough of and the fact it isn’t short of places for a drink makes it all the better. Wrap up, go for a wander and end up in the corner of a pub with a pint – sounds like heaven, doesn’t it? Read our ultimate Georgian Quarter pub crawl here and thank us later.
Walk Around Your Local Park
If you’re lucky enough to live close to a park, go and witness it through the seasons. Ours is Sefton Park and from summer to spring its worth a visit but autumn especially. There is nothing that brings out the inner child more than a big pile of leaves. Calderstones Park is also a great place to head, or Stanley Park if you’re up North.
photo by George Brownwell
Get Weird At A Festival of The Dead
Festival Of The Dead returns to Liverpool at Mountford Hall on 3rd November as part of a 2018 UK tour, with a spectacular show unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Mixing a carnival atmosphere with circus, theatre, clubbing and mind-blowing production, Festival of the Dead follows a hugely successful debut tour in 2017 with a brand new immersive and unmissable experience. New for 2018, follow one man’s journey into the underworld; a story featuring giant creatures and creations, including The Vulture and ‘El Diablo’ – a huge, mechanical skull backdrop full of hidden surprises, a whole new cast of characters and otherworldly acrobats, circus performers, spectacular processions through the crowd, and live DJs spinning a killer club soundtrack. www.festivalofthedead.
Get a Hot Chocolate Down You
In the words of the Welsh wizard and all-round sex bomb, Tom Jones “Baby it’s cold outside”. Now a quick Google or an NHS brochure may suggest you put an extra layer on, sit close to the radiator and all other reasonable suggestions but we have never been a fan of reasonable. The only way to truly warm up and increase your level of happiness 10000% simultaneously, is to dive head first (not literally) into a big hot chocolate. Read our ultimate guide here.
Drink The Night Away At The ST GEORGE’S HALL Beer Festival
Autumn for us is about good beers with even better friends. Expect up to 200 real ales and ciders, and outside gin garden, live music and all situated in the beautiful surroundings of the Great Hall. Tickets start from £7 and include entry, souvenir glass and programme! Various sessions available. VIP tables/tickets are also available. Full details available here.
Drink A Bottle Of Red Wine By The Fire
Is there anything more autumnal than a bottle of red wine by a roaring fire? Frederiks on Hope St have comfy couches, a hypnotising fire and lots of wine to choose from. There’s also a secret lounge under 60 Hope Street with a fire and amazing drinks and nibbles. Failing that, a bottle of wine at Buyers Club, Monro or Petit Cafe Du Coin would equally hit the spot. If you fancied one in front of your own fire or on your own couch we recommend a visit to the quaint R & H Fine Wines on Queen Avenue.
Dance Your Socks Off At Liverpool Disco Festival
Let’s dance Liverpool. Everyone needs a little more disco in their life. A call to go wild and party and dance with no thought or conscience or regard for tomorrow. The swinging 70’s may be long gone but the love for disco hasn’t and it is with great excitement we announce that Liverpool Disco Festival will return this October. Iron your flares, put on your maddest jacket and dancing shoes and prepare to dance like you’re going head to head with John Travolta. Tickets.
Tuck Into A Sunday Roast
Cuts of tender meat, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle potatoes, carrot and swede, roasted parsnips all covered in lashings of heavenly gravy with the centre-piece and, if you ask us, the best bit: a Yorkshire pudding. Comfort food doesn’t get much better than that and there’s nothing like the smell of a Sunday. Liverpool isn’t short of places churning out a Sunday roast that’ll rival your ma’s, read our ultimate guide here.
Eat Pie At Homebaked Anfield
Soft, buttery and flaky crust with something to warm your stomach and soul inside – there’s nothing a pie can’t fix. Homebaked Anfield is a community run, cooperative bakery that opened on Oakfield Rd in Anfield a few years ago. It is based in the old Mitchells, which had been a bakery for over a hundred years. After Mitchells closed, the Biennial used the bakery as a base for an arts project working with young people to explore ‘Living Well’. People kept knocking on the door and asking when the bakery was re-opening, so a group of local people got together, launched a kickstarter and reopened the bakery in 2013 with an oven in the heart of Anfield donated by individuals from as far away as Alaska.
Go To A Trainer Festival
The popular trainer festival see’s sneaker lovers and alike from across the world, old and young descend on the city to browse the thousands of rare, vintage and dead stock trainers available to ticket holders by it’s huge number of independent traders and collectors. As always the market place is accompanied by a panel of special guests, brands, and DJ’s. For 2018, LACES OUT! expanded to a brand new venue situated in the heart of the blossoming Cains Brewery Village Liverpool: Hinterlands. And they’re back again this autumn. Tickets.
Get Dipping At La Finca Eivissa
Based in the former Rockwood Bar and Cue, hidden on Back Colquitt Street, La Finca Eivissa has been transporting the good people of Liverpool to the Balearic Islands for almost a year. Tasty tapas, killer cocktails and a pretty stunning interior that wouldn’t look out of place on Pinterest is the winning formula. Secrets are meant to be broken and this is one hidden gem we couldn’t keep to ourselves. Grab a table, grab a loved one and go and share some churros.
Free Indian Lantern Workshop at Beatles Story
Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, is on the 7th of November this year. To celebrate, the Beatles Story is hosting a week of free family-friendly workshops where children can make their own paper lanterns, during the half-term holidays. From the 22nd until the 26th October families can head down to the Discovery Zone, and create an Indian paper lantern decorated with an array of different materials using peacocks, tigers and elephants for inspiration. This is a ticket free event and the workshops will be held daily between 2pm and 4pm.
Visit a Gin & Rum Festival
Gin festival? You had us at gin! Life is too short for single gins. On the 19th and 20th October the Absolutely Fabulous gin festival are bringing 80 gins and a selection of rums to the beautiful Croxteth Hall. Enjoy an evening or afternoon of sampling some of the best gins served with a variety of Fever Tree tonics and garnishes. Grab tickets here.
Drink The Night Away At A Cocktail Festival
Sixteen bars, two evenings, one landmark venue. The UK’s leading cocktail festival is back to deliver a double header of cocktail creativity in one of the world’s finest neoclassical buildings, St George’s Hall. Secret speakeasies, members bars, party bars and glamorous institutions are coming together in pop-up form to celebrate the quality and diversity of Liverpool’s world class cocktail scene on October 12th and 13th. Tickets here.
Go On A Terrifying Tour
If you’ve outgrown your Halloween outfit and truth be told you’re way too old to be trick or treating, we know just the thing to do. Shiverpool have been putting the willies up people (don’t you dare laugh) for some years now and they’re at their most terrifying around Halloween. If you want to hear creepy tales, learn about the mysteries and history of Liverpool and have a thrilling good time, the Shiverpool tour is for you. Expect the unexpected. Get tickets here.
Watch the Fireworks
‘Remember, remember the 5th of November’. Bonfire night is the night we take to the streets to admire displays from afar with loved ones. Sparks will fly and it can all get a bit romantic and feel like you’re in a Hugh Grant film for a few minutes. News on firework displays around the city will be released very soon.
Photo by Al Disley
Go And See A Scary Movie At The Palm House
Join Palm House 3 nights of frightful fun from 29th of October to the 31st. Visit the Palm House after night fall and come into a land of enchantment with their first film Hocus Pocus, with devilish hot dogs and nachos to calm your appetite. They will also be showing Mommie Dearest, Gremlins, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dracula and more. Grab tickets here.
Family Yoga With Yoga Bears
A magical opportunity for all adults and children ages 3years and over to spend some quality time together within the tranquil setting of the Palm House, Sefton Park. This 60 minute class is an ideal introduction for all parents, aunties, uncles, grandparents to bring their children and practice the A-Z of YogaBears 26 postures designed to meet all children at their level providing a fun and interactive session. The class will also include a partner pose sequence which entails you and your child working together as a team which is such an amazing experience and something you can definitely take away from the day. The class will finish with a relaxation where as a family you can experience the magical moment of stillness and togetherness. More here.
Treat Your Tastebuds At A Belzan Collaboration Evening
This is Autumn in Belzan sees the return of the monthly collaboration events with some of the U.K.s best chefs and restaurants. Beginning in October they have Ox Club coming from Leeds for an exclusive menu ‘Fired and Cured’. In November they also have Anglothai and Breddos Tacos coming from London for a 6 course taster menu matched with wines and beers. All tickets will be released 4 weeks before the Events and will be able to be purchased in either Belzan or Filter and Fox.
Aurora At Toxteth Reservoir
For over 100 years it held 2 million gallons of water. Now it holds you. Step inside the cave-like vaults of Toxteth Reservoir for a 40-minute ‘walk on water’. Through dark chambers and between towering iron arches, water surrounds, floods and falls around you, both beautiful and terrifying. The sights, sounds and wonder of an ice cave, a tropical rainforest and monsoons unfold before you. But as you find yourself on an island, are you safe? Because when we understand that water is more precious than oil or gold, we view everything differently. More here.
