We’re Partnering Up With LIV-BCN Festival 2015 — And It’s Going To Be Awesome

We are thrilled to officially announce our partnership with arts festival LIV-BCN, which will this year include cult Liverpool artists Marnie (Ladytron) and Clinic, celebrated Catalonian illustrator Mariadiamantes, and the exquisite multi-award winning fairytale Blancanieves (2012).

An independent festival connecting and celebrating the cities of Liverpool and Barcelona through the arts, the event is back for the second year running — bigger, better and more ambitious. In addition to the live music this year, LIV-BCN is offering a tasty selection of superb film, design and illustration.

Partnering up on LIV-BCN’s creative programming this summer, and showcasing excellent work from both Liverpool and Barcelona, The Double Negative Editor Laura Robertson will be curating the festival’s inaugural exhibition at both BAU University (June) and Liverpool John Moores University (July), featuring brand new work from Visual Cities illustrator Mariadiamantes (whose clients include Amazon, Ajuntament de Barcelona, Estrella Damm, Banc Sabadel and Nescafé) and designer John Wai (who has over 10 years industry experience working with EMI Records, The Guardian International Television Festival, Ian Brown, Liverpool Biennial and The Double Negative magazine). They will be joined by a selection of fantastic third year graphic arts students from both universities.

LIV-BCN’s first ever film screening at Liverpool’s brand new A Small Cinema (July), in association with The Double Negative, will be Pablo Berger’s 2012 silent masterpiece Blancanieves (Snow White), which has won 46 awards to date (including Best Director, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2013, and Best Film, CinEuphoria Awards 2013).

Music in the Liverpool edition of the festival (July) will be headlined by the city’s favourite virtuoso art-rockers Clinic (Domino Records), an unbelievable 15 years since the release of their highly acclaimed, first full-length studio album Internal Wrangler. They will be joined by a host of other live bands from both Liverpool and Barcelona, including: Univers, a side project of members of Mujeres, Aliment and Piñata, who will be performing grimy and noisy indie from debut album L’Estat Natural (2014); and The Suicide of Western Culture (signed to El Segell del Primavera), renowned for their live a/v shows around the world, including at SXSW, Eurosonic, Primavera Sound, and  The Great Escape.

Barcelona’s edition (June) will be headlined by pop star Marnie, who found international acclaim as part of Liverpool electro/new wave four piece Ladytron in 1999. Marnie will be performing tracks from Crystal World, recorded in Iceland in 2013, and new song Wolves (out now as a 7″ single).

The energetic festival founders, music journalist Oriol Bosch and graphic designer Malena Ramírez Silvestre, originate from Barcelona and moved to Liverpool two and a half years ago. Inspired by both cities, they came up with the idea of a parallel festival that would allow artists and residents to experience, and simply enjoy, each other’s talents.

Describing himself as “Utmost excited!” for LIV-BCN 2015, Bosch is “especially happy of being able to do it both in Barcelona and Liverpool, in amazing venues like Apolo 2 and The Kazimier, and with superb acts…

“We are looking forward to everything, but the exhibition is really exciting too, as it’s a new aspect of the festival that involves wonderful artists from both cities, traveling from one place to the other this summer.”

We can’t wait!

The second edition of LIV-BCN in Liverpool is supported by Institut Ramon Llull, Acción Cultural Española, Liverpool Craft Beer Co., Bau Centre Universitari de Disseny de Barcelona, Liverpool John Moores University, The Double Negative, Bido Lito, Mondosonoro, G.F. Smith Papers, Lunya and Parr Street Hotel