Liverpool launches a John Lennon Tribute Season on what would have been his 70th birthday, October 9, with the unveiling of a new peace monument, titled “Peace & harmony”, in Chavasse Park, a five-acre city center park overlooking the River Mersey. The monument, by American artist, 19-year-old Lauren Voiers, was commissioned by the California-based Global Peace Initiative after Lennon’s son Julian had seen some of Voiers’ peace-themed work.

The John Lennon Tribute Season culminates December 9, the day after the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death, with a giant charity concert at Liverpool’s Echo Arena. The two month program will include exhibitions, walking and taxi tours, poetry competitions, gigs, concerts and a range of cultural events. One event we particularly like the look of is the Bed-in at the Bluecoat – 62 days and 62 occupiers of the bed – commemorating Lennon’s 1969 bed-ins for peace.

Bed-In at the Bluecoat celebrates John Lennon’s commitment to peace and pays homage to one of the actions that he and Yoko Ono carried out in 1969, immediately after they were married. Their week long bed-ins for peace, staged first in Amsterdam then in Montreal, were expressions of non-violent protest against war.

The exciting project forms part of Liverpool City Council’s John Lennon Tribute Season, which marks two crucial anniversaries; what would have been Lennon’s 70th birthday and the 30th anniversary of his assassination. The Bed-In has been endorsed by Yoko Ono, who has a long-standing relationship with the Bluecoat, where she performed in 1967 and again in 2008.

Yoko said; “‘I think it’s wonderful that they will be doing the Bed-In. There should be many lively discussions, with the visitors and the couple in the bed, just like there were at the time John and I did it. There is much to discuss in terms of War and Peace now.”

How to apply: Bed-In at the Bluecoat invites proposals from anyone who wishes to contribute to John and Yoko’s tradition of non-violent action for a better world, using the format of occupying a double-bed sited publicly at the Bluecoat.

Bryan Biggs, Artistic Director at the Bluecoat said: “We want participants to experiment with the framework of the bed-in. Actions can be serious, humorous, commemorative or provocative. John and Yoko used the bed to hold a series of conversations with the media, but they also lounged about in their pajamas, cuddled, sniffed flowers and sang.”

Other special events include the Astrid Kirchherr Retrospective of at the Victoria Gallery of Art, which features Beatles photographs from the early 1960s and concerts at the celebrated Cavern Club .