Thousands of people are gathering on Merseyside to remember the 96 Liverpool football fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster 20 years ago.The supporters were crushed to death on 15 April 1989 during Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final tie with Nottingham Forest at the stadium in Sheffield.
Victims' families, survivors and players past and present are arriving at Anfield for a remembrance service.
Candles will be lit for each of the victims of the tragedy.
Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool's manager at the time, will give a reading and relatives of the victims will be given the freedom of the city by civic leaders.
A spokesman for the club said: "We rely upon the eternal flame of the Hillsborough Memorial to burn some light into the darkest night."
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The service will begin at 1445 BST and a two-minute silence will be held at 1506 BST, the exact time the game was abandoned two decades ago.
The same silent memorial will also be observed in the city centres of Liverpool, Sheffield and Nottingham.
Liverpool Football Club is opening the lower tier of the Centenary Stand to accommodate the huge number of fans.
At the same event on the 10th anniversary, 10,000 fans turned out but many more are expected for Wednesday's service.
On the day of the tragedy, Liverpool supporters were in the Leppings Lane end of the ground.
Liverpool fan Trevor Hicks attended the game with this family. His two daughters Sarah and Victoria were killed in the crush.
Since their tragic deaths he has campaigned for justice and is the chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group.
He said: "We're sick of it, we wish it had never happened. Similarly, we're sick of all the backsliding, we're sick of all the lying and cheating, the unfulfilled promises from politicians, from organisations.
"And really we have no option but to keep on doing what we're doing, because quite frankly a lot of people don't listen to us."
Liverpool fan Damian Kavanagh managed to escape the crush in the stadium.
He said: "I started crawling over the heads of the people in front of us and as I was crawling over one man said, 'there's people dying here', but I already knew that and the policeman grabbed hold of me.
"I wriggled past and he threw me on to the shingle track around the pitch and I was out.
"It was just like a relief and you could see the sunshine again."
South Yorkshire Police, which oversaw the event, opened a large exit gate which forced too many Liverpool fans on to the terrace, leaving the fans inside trapped between people entering the ground and the metal fences at the front of the stand.
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The families of the victims have kept up a campaign to have the events which led to the deaths fully investigated, despite previous inquiries.
They were supported by former striker Ian Rush, who was in the Liverpool team at Hillsborough.
He said: "I will be at Anfield to pay my respects to the 96 Liverpool fans who went to support their team and never came home, and I will also be there to show my support for the families and survivors of this terrible tragedy.
"The build-up to this anniversary has brought back some really bad memories which have made my conviction even stronger that the fight for justice must go on.
"The families deserve justice and I hope that one day they will finally get it."
Tom Williams, an auxiliary bishop of Liverpool, is taking part in the service.
He recalled the evening after the tragedy happened saying: "People were trying to just come to terms with what was happening and I remember that two young children turned up, dressed in an Everton kit, and the other in a Liverpool kit.
"The mile of scarves, all the small little things people left. It was family and I think Liverpool became a bigger family that time."
Meanwhile David Moyes, the boss of city rivals Everton, said: "Hillsborough has had a great impact on me since I arrived on Merseyside as Everton manager seven years ago, as it did when it happened and I was still a player.
"For all the rivalry we have got between each other, blue and red in this city, it is only a game we play and you go to matches wearing your colours.
"I remember doing that with my dad as a young boy, a lot of parents take their children to games.
"But that time they did not come home, and that is something that should never have been allowed to happen. Let's just hope that it never does again."
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Fans remember Hillsborough dead 
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