JUNE 17th & 18th

The Waterloo Festival is now in its 8th year and is organised by Waterloo Sunrise CIC; a not for profit company limited by guarantee founded by Steve McGriskin in February 2016. 

The success of the Festival could not have been achieved without the support given by lots of people and organisations. Special thanks need to go to the National Lottery Fund, Sefton Council, Waterloo Town Team, and the Councillors representing Church, Victoria and Blundellsands wards of Sefton Borough Council. The continuing support given by the event’s main sponsor Logic Estates is recognised as a crucial requirement and is gratefully acknowledged. The ongoing help and support of Sefton’s Event Safety Advisory Group is also appreciated. 

A special thanks to Phil Petrou, Tom Hilton, Meghan McIntosh and Lee Benson.

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Thanks to several "Wombles" from Waterloo, Crosby, Crosby Beach and Rimrose Valley for litter picking during the Festival. Much appreciated!!

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Thanks to Church Ward Labour Councillors for financing extra litter picking and street cleaning outside of the Festival site around the bottom of South Road area

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The Company has set the following objectives and seeks to achieve these through creating a viable and self-financing community festival in Waterloo: 

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· To promote a positive image of Waterloo as a great place to live, work, visit and invest 

· To showcase local talent 

· To support local business and community based initiatives 

· To support Sefton Council’s policy of phasing out single use plastics 

· To be inclusive and bring people together to promote community pride and spirit 

· To challenge social isolation and help promote mental health awareness 

· To continue to support local good causes ( previous activity is outlined below) 

In 2021 the following objective was added: 

· To ensure that all efforts are made to eliminate the risk of Covid transmission at the Waterloo Festival 

The Festival provides an opportunity for the local community to come together and enjoy a weekend full of family entertainment. By doing this it provides an opportunity for all sectors of our community to take part and promote their services and activities to the wider community. 

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The Festival has supported the following projects: 

In 2016 Waterloo Sunrise CIC allocated £1650 between four local groups - Lifeline (a drug and substance misuse project) Y Kids Bootle, JETS Centre Waterloo and Sefton Care Leavers Centre. Each of these groups were actively involved in the Festival through delivering different projects. Also in 2016 a “Come Together” marquee was provided at the Festival and 25 local community and voluntary sector organisations were given free space and facilities to promote their activities and services.  A “Health & Wellbeing” campaign, including the Sefton Para Triathlon, was run in 2017 in support of MIND’S ‘Time to Change’ mental health awareness campaign in association with Living Well Sefton and Sefton Care Leavers Centre. 

Waterloo Sunrise CIC helped draft successful Lottery funding bids worth nearly £20,000 on behalf of two local charities - ‘In Another Place’ and ‘Rimrose Valley Friends’ with support subsequently being given to help deliver the ensuing projects. These projects were a ‘Living Advent Calendar’ produced by In Another Place and a ‘Celebrate! Rimrose Country Park’ event on behalf of Rimrose Valley Friends.

The company also submitted a successful bid for £4000 for Rimrose Valley Friends via the TESCO bags of help grant scheme. 

The company donated £50 to sponsor a static bike challenge to support Sefton Care Leavers Centre. 

The company paid £150 to provide stewards at the Waterloo Christmas Lights switch-on in 2017. 

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Waterloo Sunrise CIC has donated £2750 to TEAM Sefton. 

In 2019 £1,000 was donated by the company to Friends of Crosby Beach. 

In 2020 we supported Friends of Crosby Beach, Sefton Community Pantry, Migrant Workers Sefton Community and the Liverpool Homeless Football Club and promoted their activities during the Virtual Waterloo Festival. This year we are seeking to help raise funds for Friends of Crosby Beach and Rimrose Valley Friends. 

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Waterloo Sunrise CIC supports Sefton Council’s policy to reduce the use of single-use plastic in Sefton. The CIC is developing a strategy to phase out the use of single-use plastic at the Waterloo Festival. Towards this end all caterers have agreed not to use plastic trays, plates, cutlery and stirrers. The CIC will use the Festival to promote the Council’s policy and the reasons for phasing out SUP and to encourage Sefton residents to switch to alternatives. To help achieve this, local beach cleaning groups and other like-minded organisations will be invited to attend the Festival to promote their activities, aid recruitment and help generate more support for environmentally aware lifestyles and practices. 

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The possibility of providing a reusable plastic “glass” to people as they entered the site to reduce waste when buying drinks was explored but this idea proved impossible to implement as caterers must provide customers with a clean “glass” every time to avoid any cross-contamination taking place affecting their dispense equipment. 

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We explored the possibility of providing water standpipes across the site to enable free provision of fresh drinking water to reduce the use of plastic bottles. Unfortunately for technical reasons and cost this was not possible. This type of facility was suggested as part of the consultations for the production of the “Coastal Park Masterplan”. We have refused requests from some stallholders to use glitter in face painting, helium-filled balloons and spray squirty string.