Welcome to the 4th edition of the Liverpool & Beyond newsletter (sorry this one’s arriving a tad later than usual).

🥊 Fight Unfair Parking Rules: A petition urging the council to rethink strict parking limits around the new Everton Stadium is closing in on 20,000 signatures. The restrictions are expected to hit local businesses hard, with many already feeling the strain, including the Climbing Hangar, and Blackstock Market. Learn more and sign the petition here.

⭐ Look Up This Friday: The grand finale of 2025’s dazzling planetary alignment happens this Friday (Feb 28), and a sight like this won’t come around again until 2040. Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus will be easy to spot in the evening sky—but Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune? Not so much. Still, it’s worth grabbing a stargazing app and looking up.

😔 No Africa Oyé: Liverpool’s Africa Oyé festival is sadly taking a hiatus in 2025 due to rising costs (20-30%+), with plans to return in 2026.

👉 Must See-Month: Until 17th March, many of Liverpool’s venues will be offering special events, discounts, food and drink offers and more. View the schedule week-by-week to get involved and find out more about how you can book on.

🏆 Giveaway Winner: The winner of this month’s giveaway (a £30 Liverpool Philharmonic voucher) has been notified. Congrats Alison! Keep your eyes peeled for the next giveaway which we’ll announce soon!

Now to the events list…

📅 Upcoming Events

We’re now mostly focusing on including next week’s events in each newsletter. If you’re looking for more to do this weekend, please check out last week’s newsletter. That being said, we have included a few extra events over the next few days below…

Thu 27 Feb

Fri 28 Feb

Sat 1 Mar

Sun 2 Mar

Mon 3 Mar

Tue 4 Mar

Wed 5 Mar

Thu 6 Mar

Fri 7 Mar

Sat 8 Mar

Sun 9 Mar

Mon 10 Mar

❓ Did You Know?

Liverpool’s docks were a hub of global trade, and Elder Dempster & Co., a shipping company based there, was connected to the exposition of one of history’s worst atrocities—though not intentionally. One of its employees, Edmund Dene Morel, managed the company’s Congo trade and noticed something disturbing in the shipping records. Vessels arriving in Belgium from the Congo were packed with ivory and rubber, yet the return trips carried nothing but soldiers, guns, and chains. No trade goods. No payments. Just the machinery of oppression.

Morel couldn’t stay silent. He quit his job, became a journalist, and made it his life’s mission to expose what he realized was a brutal system of forced labor. His reports sparked outrage, leading to the Congo Reform Association, backed by figures like Arthur Conan Doyle and Mark Twain. Under mounting pressure, Belgium was forced to take control of the Congo in 1908, ending King Leopold II’s personal rule.

If you found this newsletter worth your time, please do pass it on to your friends. If you didn’t, hit reply and let us know what you’d like to see!

Until next time…