Liverpool Sound City will return to city centre in 2021, Beabadoobee announced among more than 50 additions to line-up

27 April 2021 - Press release

 

Sound City will take place in venues across Liverpool’s city centre this year, marking a return to the festival’s spiritual home.

The 2021 event will bring music fans and industry executives alike to venues such as the city’s Grand Central Hall, Arts Club and Jimmy’s as the city’s famous music scene opens back up following the Covid-19 lockdown.

More than 50 artists have also been announced for the 2021 line-up.

Leading the new names announced today is one of the past 12 months’ biggest breakthrough favourites in Beabadoobee. The Dirty Hit signed artist has more than 1 billion streams and more than 712,000 followers on Spotify. 

She has been championed by BBC Radio 1, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Dazed, The Fader, i-D, Pigeons and Planes, Noisey, NME, Time Out, Paper, Nylon, Time Out, The New Yorker and The Guardian, amongst others.

More than 150 acts will play Sound City 2021 in total including Jamie Webster, Baby Queen, Gracey, Not3s, Lapsely, Pixey, Beaux, Miraa May, Molly Payton, Rianne Downey, Nayana Iz, Phoebe AXA, The Lottery Winners and many more. 

You can see the rest of the newly announced artists and the Sound City 2021 line-up so far here.

The first wave of artists to play Sound City 2021 was announced in February. They were: Rejjie Snow, Red Rum Club, The Snuts, The Lathums, The Mysterines, The Murder Capital, Lanterns On The Lake, Abbie Ozard, Brooke Combe, Hello Delaware, Miss Tati and Isabel Neib. 

Sound City MD Becky Ayres said: “As if we couldn’t be more excited to return to Sound City this October, looking at our line-up now is a real moment of pride. Bringing together different genres from a diverse range of artists from across the UK, being together once again to celebrate the best in new music discovery is going to be a truly special occasion. Not only that, but returning to our spiritual home in the heart of Liverpool City Centre is something I am particularly looking forward to. Where Sound City began, in the greatest musical city in the UK, surrounded by like-minded people all finding their new favourite artists and some of the best live bands going.”

Continuing a long-standing relationship, Sound City is once again the UK’s lead festival partner for Keychange, the global movement focused on the restructuring of the music industry to achieve gender equality.  A focus that will be shown across the full Sound City line-up with many more names to be revealed in the months ahead and through a range of initiatives, panels and more.

Sound City is committed to championing gender equality across all of its musical projects including Sound City Korea, Ipswich and new streaming platform Guesthouse.

Sound City 2021 was originally set for April 30 – May 2 upon the cancellation of last year’s event owing to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Determined not to leave music fans and artists deserted last year, the Sound City team developed and launched Guesthouse – a live-streaming platform with weekly programming. Designed to help artists who have had to cancel live shows as a result of the pandemic, it offers fans the opportunity to financially support their favourite acts through donations.

One of the first solutions of its kind, Guesthouse has since evolved far beyond the context of lockdown, becoming a permanent fixture in the Sound City stable.

The inaugural Stay At Home Festival in May saw live-streamed performances from Friendly Fires, The Wombats, She Drew The Gun, Ian Skelly and more.

Since then, the platform has hosted album launch parties for The Streets, Dermot Kennedy, The Lathums, and The Blinders. Also an online extension of Sound City’s commitment to diversity and gender parity, 56% of all artists to appear on Guesthouse since the platform’s inception have featured female or gender minority members.

 

Client-based programming has included other special shows for AWAL, SAMA, The Rattle, Keychange, BIMM, Island Records and SB Mgmt.