Liverpool came alive for Taylor Swift, now a big change is needed

As always, Liverpool rose to the occasion.

Taylor Swift – the biggest star in the world – brought her Eras tour to Anfield and the city came alive. Since the ‘Swifties’ started arriving in Liverpool on Wednesday, you couldn’t move for the pink cowboy hats.

People came to Liverpool in droves for the concerts, but few other cities embraced Taylor the way we did. The town, called “Taylor Town” in recent days. it was dressed for her and her legions of fans.

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Whether it was the Taylor Trail art installations or the businesses that went out of their way to join the hype, Liverpool just doesn’t do things by halves. We saw this last year with Eurovision and earlier this month when Cunard brought out its newest ship Queen Anne for her naming ceremony – a day of free celebrations that ended with a spectacular fireworks display. No one does it better than us.

That said, this city knows it’s a coup to host Taylor. It is a particular joy that we beat Manchester to be the only city in the north of England to host the Eras tournament.

Taylor noticed herself, telling the opening night crowd: “Hello Liverpool, you’ve just gone and made me feel absolutely incredible.”

She added: “I’m not going to lie. That went straight to my head. I mean, you made me feel really, really strong.” As the five-star ECHO review attests, it was an opening show, helped by a famous Anfield atmosphere.

Open-air concerts at the L4 stadium have become a regular fixture in recent years. Taylor’s hat-trick was preceded by sold-out performances from The Rolling Stones, Eagles, Pink, Bon Jovi and Elton John.

However, Liverpool’s historic ground isn’t the only show in town. Whether it’s the Pier Head, Sefton Park, Anfield or Everton’s new home at Bramley-Moore Dock, Liverpool is stocked with great venues for summer events.

But depending on the weather – and for football grounds – there are precious few weeks between Premier League seasons when they can be used for live music.

That strength in depth just isn’t there when it comes to winter. The M&S Bank Arena has been a great addition to Liverpool’s waterfront and has hosted many major events since opening as the ECHO Arena in 2008.

It’s an attractive building in a great setting, but there is a sense that it is constrained by its 11,000 capacity, which may affect its ability to bring in the world’s biggest stars. All too often these days arena tours call at Manchester and don’t make the journey up the M62.

Looking at Manchester, the city’s new 23,500-capacity Co-op Live arena has had a far from straightforward start to life. The litany of glitches and delays made the new arena a near-constant line and ruined a lot of nights on the town.

That said, look at his event schedule and it’s full of huge acts. Legends such as Stevie Nicks will grace the stage in the coming months, as well as a host of current stars – namely Billie Eilish, Charlie XCX, Megan Thee Stallion and Travis Scott – with many performing across multiple nights.

The Co-op is the biggest indoor arena in Europe and once its significant teething problems are ironed out (and yes, that could take some time), Manchester will have an arena to rival any on the planet. There is also the existing AO Arena, which holds 21,000 people and still attracts huge stars. Not a bad position for Manchester.

But more than anywhere else, Liverpool thrives when it can host a big event. A bigger arena seems like a problem – the city is ripe with brownfields that could have such a venue built on and they allow us to host parties of this scale all the time.

Liverpool bills itself as a music city – that must mean it can attract the biggest stars on the planet all year round. You have to be bold and ambitious to do that.

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