16 captivating pictures of Liverpool's International Garden Festival - from beautiful Indian garden to dragon

The famous International Garden Festival of 1984 was officially launched by Queen Elizabeth II, and saw more than three million visitors descend on Festival Gardens, just outside of Liverpool city centre. Taking place for five months, the fantastic event was designed to encourage tourism to the city following the Toxteth riots, and was a roaring success.

With sixty individual gardens to explore, including Indian and Japanese inspired greens spaces, and beautiful artwork and sculptures, the legacy of the festival lives on forty years later. Notable attractions included a red dragon slide, a huge yellow submarine, a stunning waterfall, steam train and a statue of the legendary John Lennon.

While the Festival Gardens are home to a beautiful park and oriental garden, which reopened in 2012 following major redevelopment work, other parts of the site of the were left in a terrible state and have been derelict for over thirty-years. Liverpool Council has been working for a number of years to transform the site from landfill to 1,500 brand new homes. A new southern grasslands extension to the Festival Gardens was opened in 2023.

As Liverpool Council’s search for a partner for the 27-acre Festival Gardens’ Development Zone ‘moves up a gear’, we have created a gallery showcasing the International Garden Festival in all its glory. Take a look at the wonderful images below to see its stunning floral displays, sculptures, waterfalls and more.