Tickle the Ivories Piano Festival
We look forward to welcoming Tickle the Ivories back for 2025, with the chance for visitors to showcase their musical talents!
The 10 week-long event runs until September and encourages local talent to get involved and fill the streets of Liverpool city centre with symphonies of every genre from classical through to dance music.
The free-to-use pianos are located across Liverpool ONE, you can find them at:
The bottom of Sugar House Steps by John Lewis & Partners
South John Street
Peter’s Square
College Lane
The Galleria by the entrance of ODEON
Whether it’s dropping in for a spontaneous melody, or watching the incredible performances as the world goes by at Liverpool ONE, Tickle the Ivories is an event held for everyone.
Performance Schedule
Take a look at our upcoming performance schedule.
Friday 30 August
Artist: Lucas Fraser
Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Artist: Lucas Fraser
Time: 1pm – 2pm
Location: South Joh Street
Artist: Andrew Fisher
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Artist: Liverpool Suzuki Violins
Time: 3pm – 4pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Sunday 1 September
Artist: Matthew Nealis
Time: 12pm – 1pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Artist: Andrew Fisher
Time: 1pm – 2pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Artist: Liverpool Socialist Singers
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Location: Sugar House Steps
Want to book a slot?
Pianos are available free to use for all. However, if you would like to book to play at a specific time, please complete your details on the form below. You will then receive a link to Liverpool ONE’s booking system where you can see all the pianos and slots available and book your chosen location.
Meet the artists behind the Tickle 2024 designs!
For our 2024 Tickle the Ivories festival, our gorgeous pianos were all inspired by different music legends. Here’s a little bit about the artists who created the wonderful designs!
Rosa Kusabbi - Girls Aloud
After graduating with a first Class Illustration degree in 2020, Rosa was named as one of the top ten illustrators to watch by the AOI.
Rosa’s work is centred around Queer joy, female empowerment and social issues.
Ffion Pritchard - Taylor Swift
Ffion is an artist and designer based in North Wales. Experienced in marketing, commercial illustration, motion graphics, fine art and community-engaged arts.
Ffion is interested in how art can benefit society, be it through community-engaged art, art in healthcare or through the cathartic power of storytelling, humour and entertainment.
Stu Harrison - The Beatles
Stu is an illustrator and cartoonist, producing artwork for children’s books and creating ideas for children’s media, as well as working extensively in editorial illustration for publications including the Guardian Guide, Mixmag and Select.
He has had global representation by agents in the UK, Europe, The US and Japan.
Karen Hitchcock - Freddie Mercury
Submitting Karen’s idea was a development from an earlier project called “Our Correspondence“ where scenes of people getting on in their day were illustrated in the style of “where’s Wally” but in black and white.
She wanted to have Freddie’s outfits as the only figures with colour, that stands out, like Mercury’s vibrant energy and spirit.
