River Mersey Festival

So far the River Festival has been fantastic!  We’ve been really lucky with the weather because although it’s incredibly windy we’ve only had one shower (and we were in a restaurant at the time) and it’s actually been quite sunny.

We saw the Isle of Man catamaran ferry the "Manannan". It’s very impressive and you can see right through it between the hulls. We were told that someone had once jet-ski’d  through it - and been jailed for the privilege.

We took a tourist trip on the Yellow Duck and although I was sceptical at first thinking it would be the usual rip-off I can’t recommend it enough!  We started with a road trip around all the sights of Liverpool and the guide was entertaining as well as a mine of information.

The ‘bus’ then took a dive into Salthouse Dock, right by our boat, and we had a tour of the docks.  It lasted an hour, cost just under a tenner and was worth every penny.

Yesterday saw lots of things going on all round the waterfront.  There were jet skis in Albert Dock, although the practice sessions were in Salthouse Dock right beside our boat. There was P1 power boat
super stock racing out on the River Mersey and wakeboarding, also in Salthouse Dock.

There were a few street theatre acts performing throughout the day, mainly around Albert Dock, and then in the afternoon there was an aerial display by the Russian Yakovlevs display team over the River Mersey.

we came through this tunnel on our way into the docks
(minus the fish of course)

The main stage over by the Pier Head had live entertainment on all afternoon with a concert by soul singer Beverley Knight rounding off the evening. By that time it was getting quite cold and was still very windy but I was surprised how few people were there, especially as it’s all free.

Most of the narrowboats in Salthouse Dock have put up bunting and quite a few, including us, also have fairy lights so it all looks quite spectacular.