Everton’s plan for ‘Farewell to Goodison festival’ with live music and cult heroes

Sunday May 18 will mark an emotional moment in Everton’s long and storied history as the club take to the Goodison Park pitch in L4 for the final time before their move to Bramley Moore Dock. Ahead of the season-long goodbye, the Toffees have already begun to announce a series of events to commemorate leaving the place that they have called home since 1892.

Now the club’s charity arm, Everton in the Community, has written to fans unveiling plans the club wants to hold for a series of live music events as the curtain comes down on the Grand Old Lady.

Last week, the club announced the first in its series of events planned for next summer, including Gwladys Street Presents: Cult Heroes, featuring Lee Carsley, Daniel Amokachi and Thomas Gravesen. The trio will join members of Sean Dyche’s first-team squad and special-guest host Leon Osman in August.

A Farewell to Goodison Festival has also been proposed, which would run across three nights and an afternoon featuring live music between May 30 and June 1. The evening sessions would run from 5pm to 10pm with a Saturday show for young people between 1pm and 3pm.

Each evening would feature a different genre of music including dance, pop and guitar music. Under the plans, the ground would be vacated by 11pm.

The club would also likely require permission from Liverpool Council’s licensing department for the performance of live music, akin to terms granted for the series of concerts at Anfield last month. The Blues previously acquired the go-ahead for a live non-football event when boxer Tony Bellew won the vacant WBC cruiserweight title in front of fans in 2016.

According to a letter sent to fans by Sarah Atherton, Everton in the Community’s neighbourhood manager, to make the events a reality, a stage for 20,000 fans could be built to host the three shows in front of the Gwladys Street end. It is thought the junior event would be of a smaller capacity.

Ms Atherton wrote how the events will allow “a rare and unique opportunity to experience an event of this nature at Goodison Park.”

A series of public meetings are to be held regarding the proposals later this month. They will take place at The People’s Hub, Spellow Lane, from 10am to midday on Wednesday July 23 and 4pm until 6pm the following day.