Liverpool's Mathew Street Festival revived after 10 years

Changes in the city centre layout had an impact on where stages could be set up

A festival created to celebrate the birthplace of Merseybeat and the Beatles is to return in a new format.

The ticket-only Liverpool Celebrates The Mathew Street Festival, will be held at the Pier Head and will be for over-18s only.

Organisers said it would be a "brilliant tribute" to the original event.

The Mathew Street Festival, which grew from a single stage into a globally-popular event, was cancelled in 2013.

The new festival's organiser, Daniel Sanders, said: "It can't come back in its original format - but we've seen what the city's done down at the Pier Head with Eurovision and we think we can do a brilliant tribute to Mathew Street down there."

The Mathew Street Festival started in 1993, and became a fixture of the August Bank Holiday weekend for 20 years.

It drew crowds from across the world, but also drew criticism for being too rowdy and noisy.

When three-day event was cancelled, the council cited rising costs and the changing landscape of the city.

It had become more difficult to set up stages in the city centre, so the event was replaced with the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) in Sefton Park.

The revived event will be a celebration of music and the original festival, organisers said

Alex McKechnie, who was part of the original Mathew Street Festival team based at the Cavern, said: "I've such great memories of it, I don't think you could stage such a big event in the city now with so many new buildings built."

He said he had received petitions from fans wanting to bring the festival back and was delighted the event was returning in some form.

Organiser Liam Spence said the new festival will be located in one site, rather than across the city unlike the past.

He said Liverpool would be "buzzing" on August Bank Holiday weekend.

"It's Beatles week anyway, so it will be a city-wide celebration of music - but in terms of bands on the streets, those days are gone sadly.

"Having a safe and secure environment down on the Pier Head is definitely the way forward."

Tribute bands - a hallmark of the old festival - will also feature in the new event.

The Cavern Club will take over the festival stage on Monday with some of the acts who play regularly on its own famous stage.

Liam Spence predicts Liverpool will be buzzing this August Bank Holiday weekend