Chester Live 2018 ran from the 22nd – 24th June 2018 across the city of Chester and culminated in the Chester Live Street Festival on Brook Street, Chester. The event, which is a community based live music event, was in it’s 2nd year after attracting nearly 6000 people in 2017.

The 2018 edition of the event not only broke that record but literally smashed it to bits with over 11,500 attending the event between the hours of 11am – 9pm. A significant growth, which was put down to the hard work of the Chester Live team over the past 12 months.

Chester Live Festival Coordinator Dan Read said, ‘We’d already had a brilliant weekend with our events across the city but the street festival was certainly beyond our wildest expectations. There was a concern that the England match would affect numbers, and although there was a lull for maybe an hour whilst the game was on, we eventualy doubled our attendance figures from the 2017 event. If anything, the postive result of the Englang game just added to the festival atmosphere, and more importantly everyone behaved and there was no trouble.’

He further added, ‘To have 11,500+ people attend the event is incredible, and also an incredible benefit to Brook Street and it’s traders. We already know some traders saw a 200% increase in turnover for the day, and like the aftermath of the 2017 event, traders will now see an upturn in trade moving forward. Traders have spoken to me about Brook Street being the ‘forgotten street of Chester’ but events like this squarely put the area on the map.

There was a carnival atmosphere all day and the live music was probably the best we’ve had and it’ll certainly be difficult to beat that in 2019. Adding the ‘Kidz Zone’ on St Anne’s Field was also a huge success and we can’t thank our friends at Amasing enough for helping to run that area for the day.

Finally I’d like to thank everyone who attended, all the traders, the Brook Street Traders for their continued support, John Kenyon at St Werburgh Centre, Councillor Martyn Delaney and all the live acts who donated their time on the day to play the event. And a massive congratulations to the Chester Live team, it’s volunteers, who did an incredible job on the day to deliver such an acceptional event, they’re the best! See you in 2019.’

There has been a deluge of positive feedback about the event:

The Chester Live Street Festival

‘What a wonderful day. Thank you for organising a great festival. The glorious weather and England’s win were nice touches too ;)’ – Allan Chester-English (EAY Digital) https://goo.gl/iycu3y

‘The event was very well managed, with visible staff in the red shirts. Good mix of stalls, bars and food especially the mini pub that was cool. More for the kids this time with the tin can ally thing, and Kidz Zone. Crowd was busier than the last one so definitely going in the right direction’ – Warren Allmark at Chester Pride

‘An incredible event with amazing helpful staff. Great live music, and delicious local food. It was a pleasure to attend. Many thanks.’ Andrew Bonsall RSPB Membership Development Officer

‘Sunday’s event was eagerly anticipated by many of our 600 plus members and they weren’t disappointed.

A fine win by England certainly got the party started and the afternoon progressed through into the evening with excellent music and a  great atmosphere. Even our Irish dancers got in on the action and they enjoyed the day immensely. The Kidzone on St Anne’s Field went down very well and was a welcome addition to the day. Special mention to our friends and next door neighbours at Bowling Green Court who raised close on one thousand pounds for their charity – Alzheimers Research.

Well done and a big thankyou to everyone who supported them in this. Also a big thankyou to the volunteers who kept the event running smoothly and helped clean up afterwards. We are already looking forward to next year’s show’ – John Kenyon at St Werburgh Parish Centre (Brook Street Trader)

‘It was great to be involved with Chester Live. There was such an amazing atmosphere, I had customers at my stall that live in Chester, there were visitors from all over the UK and even International visitors that were on holiday. I’m already looking forward to next year’ – Debbie Groom at Henna Moon

‘Thank you for a wonderful day Sunday! It was a brilliant day 💖 as always!’ – Glitterbugz

‘It was a really good event and it was lovely to listen to the children singing. Our stall did well and their was a lovely atmosphere.’ – Beach House Sands

‘A great day. We hope to be there next year’ – Bubble Waffle

‘We thought the event was brilliantly organised and very well staffed, and the question is would we do it again? The answer is definitely yes!’ – Pudding & Scoop

‘Better every year. Well done’ – Mamma Mouse

‘We simply had a wonderful time and everybody at Chester Live was absolutely fabulous, very courteous and you guys have left the group with nothing other than admiration in the professionalism you guys work with! Excellent!

Again a super huge thanks to everybody at Chester Live’ – Chester Flat Earth Society

‘The festival was lovely! Great atmosphere.’ – BG Bakery (Brook Street Trader)

‘It was great to be involved at the festival and we hope to be involved in any other events you have lined up. We had the pleasure of having war veteran William Eccles having a beer on us in our pub 😊‘ – Mike @ Urban Culture

‘Fabulous day. Well done all your team’ – Sean Noble (Hair & Beauty) Brook Street Trader

‘We were delighted to take part in this diverse, energetic and inclusive festival.’ – Body Positive Cheshire & North Wales

‘Thank you for inviting us to event. We had enjoyable time. Please let us know of upcoming events. We hope to see you again soon.😉‘ – Russian Style Crepes