Summer (The First Time)

Festivals schmestivals. Surely there's a limit to how many times you can see Muse and keep things in perspective? We're on the hunt for an alternative blast of summer fun, Liverpool style...

It’s SevenStreets’ first summer. And we’re up for doing something a little different this year. Sadly, for those of you who get the reference in the title, we’re not about to recommend reliving that particular sweet summer memory (it wasn’t all that, to be honest…). So we’ve rounded up our top ten alternative things to try out this summer. See you there…

— Sex On Fire

Well, kind of. Romeo and Juliet at the Fire Station, to be more precise. The greatest love story ever told? After Frank McKenna and Frank McKenna it’s got to be in with a shout. Directed by the RSC’s Neil Caple this is the latest attempt to bring a gritty helping of realism and relevance to these timeless tales - thanks to an ensemble blending professionals and local hoofers alike. Wherefore art though? Oh, stuck up that pole. Nasty…

Romeo And Juliet, August 26 - 28
Merseyside Community Theatre (The Reader Organisation)
Croxteth Fire Station, Storrington Avenue, Liverpool

— Cake That

Could there be anything more summery than cucumber sandwiches, tea and cupcakes on the lawn? Vintage linens, chintzy china, and lashings of ginger beer? Cupcakes in the City have brought high concept to High Teas, and promise to come round to your place, cake stands in hand, cupcakes in Tupperware, for a garden party fit for a Queen. Don’t believe the hype, good cupcakes are no fashion fad, they’re for life. From £10 per person.

Cupcakes in the City

— Al Fresco Film Nights

Al Fresco films? Why not. We don’t have a beach. We don’t have a drive in. But we do have a church with an unhindered passage to God, thanks to the Germans. And, every Weekend throughout summer, St Lukes shows films great, good and gory. Perfect for balmy summer evenings. Next up, Fritz Lang’s M, Wings of Desire and an Akira Kurosawa weekend. Can we put in a request for Withnail and I and Local Hero, Please?

USL
St Lukes Church, Hardman Street, Liverpool

— Get Arty In The Park

Sure, you can enrol on a British Military Fitness regime at Sefton Park. But that’s not for this feature. When we think of summer, we don’t think of getting sweaty with a squaddie in the park screaming at us to drop and give him twenty. We’re not Mel Gibson, after all. Calderstones Country Park is offering a far more civilised alternative to all that unseemly grunting. This summer, it’s host to a series of open-air art classes. So it’s your call - what challenge sounds more fun to you: Watercolour, or Ironman?

Calderstones Country Park, Garston, Liverpool
Tel: 225 5925

— Sunset Over Hilbre

Even the title sounds like summer in a bottle, or like some gauzy canvas by JMW Turner. And the old fella did indeed set easel up around these parts. But not on those treacherous waterlogged sandbanks out by Red Rocks. Take a guided walk and you’ll evade the quick sands and capture a Sunset good enough for an Old Master. Tours just £1. Booking - and wellies - essential.

Sunset Walks, Wednesdays
Hilbre Island, Wirral

— I Spec Out Your Grave

Here’s one to clear Chavasse Park of all those Avenged Sevenfold types. A summer’s day spent surveying a graveyard. Don’t know about you, but it’s the sound of graphite on granite, not leather on willow, that really signals summer for us.

Get your soft leaded pencils out and do a bit of grave marking at All Saints Childwall. They’re part way through plotting every monument in this venerable resting place for a project overseen by the Field Archaeology Unit at Liverpool Museum. No prior experience is necessary, they say. It’d be kinda creepy if you had any, we say.

Graveyard Recording
Sat 31 July, Sun 1 August.
All Saints Church, Childwall

— Dance To The World

Every Saturday, Movema will be running free world dance classes in Liverpool’s Parks. From Bollywood to Salsa, Capoeira to West African. Where does your dance DNA place you? Ours - we think we’re a rich soup of Oops Upside Your Head meets the Cardboard Box. So we’ll swirve it in favour of Movema’s August 7 showcase, showing the moves we forgot to make earlier - with dancers from Brazil, Russia, China and India. Now that’s what we call Diversity.

Movema
Saturdays in Stanley, Croxteth, Chavasse and Sefton Parks

— Meal and Meditation

In some city restaurants, Meditative skills would be a boon. As you sit through those interminable hours between giving your order and getting your drinks, a little enlightenment might prevent you from storming out in an ill-timed huff just as your Peronis arrive. Still, this is one meal where meditation is no side order. It’s the main attraction.

Meal and Meditation, 21 August.
Duldzin Centre, 25 Aigburth Drive, Sefton Park, Liverpool

— Dance In The Cinema

Trust FACT to push the boundaries of what’s acceptible behavior at the movies. Not content with letting us snuggle up on sofas in The Box (actually, they’re not the snuggliest of sofas…) they’re clearing out the seats completely for a rare big screen showing of Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense, one the best concerts captured on celluloid ever (after ABBA, The Movie, natch)

Bring a big suit, grab a beer, and shake it like a polaroid to Once in a Lifetime, Burning Down the House and Psycho Killer. Altogether now, fa fa fa far…

Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense, 18 August (NEW DATE)
Fact, 88 Wood Street, Liverpool

— Eat On The Street

It would be very easy for us to write a summer top ten list by simply rounding up the stuff you do inside in the winter that you can do outside in the summer (damn, why didn’t we think of that before?). But we’ve saved that cop-out til last. And, anyway, eating outdoors has taken on a whole new level - literally - thanks to Matou, an accomplished Thai, Malay and Singaporean restaurant at the new Pier Head. The views from its sunny, al fresco rooftop terrace are stunning enough. But the best bit? You don’t see that building from up here. You’re on it!

Matou Pan Asian Restaurant,
Mersey Ferry Terminal Building, Pier Head, Liverpool