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Front Row: Liverpool's Taylor Swift Art Trail, Les Dennis, the state of UK festivals

Liverpool's Taylor Swift Art Trail, Les Dennis, the state of UK festivals

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Liverpool's Taylor Swift Art Trail, Les Dennis, the state of UK festivals

Taylor Swift art trail, Les Dennis in Twelfth Night, independent festivals at risk?

A visit to the Taylor Swift art trail in Liverpool, Les Dennis on making his Shakespeare debut, and are independent festivals at risk?

As Liverpool enters the Swiftularity with the arrival of the arrival of the record-breaking phenomenon that is Taylor Swift and her Eras world tour, Nick visits the Taylor Town Trail - the new art trail dedicated to the singer's albums/eras - in the city centre and talks to one of the trail's co-producer Rhiannon Newman from Culture Liverpool, Kirsten Little - artistic director of the trail, and three of the artists involved in the project - Simon Armstrong, Rachel Smith-Evans, and Catherine Rogers.

Les Dennis makes his Shakespeare debut as Malvolio in a new production of Twelfth Night directed by Jimmy Fairhurst.  Almost as soon as the final preview performance ends, Nick joins them backstage at Shakespeare North Playhouse to discuss finding the heart in one of Shakespeare's least-loved characters, and why songs by the Arctic Monkeys Blondie, and Charlie Chaplin have an important role in this retelling of the play set in the music industry.

As the music festival season begins, news that 28 festivals have been cancelled or postponed with that number expected to rise to 100 by the end of the year prompted Front Row to reflect on the current state of music festivals in the UK with Nick Morgan, CEO of We Group - a live events production company, who has launched the Your Festival Needs You campaign, and BBC Radio 6 Music journalist and festival aficionado Georgie Rogers.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

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