With six of the city’s festivals including an art triennial happening, the opening of high-profile art exhibitions and the start of the city’s music and theatre seasons, Manchester in October has always been culturally rich. To showcase this, the city’s ambitious festivals and cultural institutions collaborate on a full weekend’s worth of extra special events, resulting in three days of constant cultural celebration hand-picked by Creative Tourist. It’s all about engaging conversations, big questions, daring performances, secret places and cool spaces.
These are some of the highlights from a full programme of more than 70 events, ranging from exhibitions, talks, workshops, performances, walking tours, boat trips, cycle rides and screenings:
The Manchester Weekender 2011 launches with a decadent evening of cabaret and cocktails at the opening of Adolphe Valette: A Pioneer of Impressionism in Manchester at The Lowry with music from the divine Swing out Sister. Corinne Drewery and Andy Connell will serenade the city with a selection of songs from iconic Mancunian bands including Joy Division, The Smiths, and New Order, all performed with a glamorous French twist. Speaking of The Smiths, erstwhile drummer Mike Joyce is curating an intimate night of the finest indie music talent at Ruby Lounge. Performances take place under a pavilion of light, the first of a series of installations that will be produced in collaboration between CUBE gallery and the Manchester School of Architecture.
Closing The Manchester Weekender this year is an in-conversation with Jarvis Cocker - one of the most iconic performers of the last twenty years.
There’s a literature-music mash-up of the highest order with Manchester Literature Festival’s Portrait of Music and Words at the RNCM and the ever-popular Whitworth After Hours has invited photographic collective BlackLab to respond to its Dark Matters exhibition. Watch as images collide and collude with film, soundscapes, slogans and texts.
Check out the homespun folk and grassroots jazz performed by local chanteuse Liz Green (and enjoy retro high tea at the same time.) From the intimate and acoustic to the grander in scale: Manchester Cathedral will echo to the voices of cloistered nuns, as Sarah Dunant and early music group Musica Secreta present a semi-dramatised version of Dunant’s novel Sacred Hearts for Manchester Literature Festival.
Be transported to a different place entirely with The Beating Wing Orchestra, a Manchester based international music collective that includes musicians from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
On Saturday, cult theatre company and award-winning comedy duo LipService are guides on The Hysterical Historical Tour, a live promenade theatre piece commissioned for The Weekender. Elsewhere, Weekender walking tours are designed to show the city in a new light. At Debenhams and the Royal Exchange, Primitive Streak will be shown, a provocative collection that tells the story of the first 1000 hours of human life.
There’s a chance to drift lazily down the Irwell on A Taste of Modern History’s foodie boat cruises with local chef Robert Owen Brown, part of the Manchester Food & Drink Festival. There’s a family day cruise from the museums of Castlefield to The Quays, and an evening cruise with a three-course meal.
The Weekender has plenty on offer for kids, with family-friendly workshops, performances and readings galore. Children’s author Tom Palmer will be reading from his new novel Scrum! at MediaCityUK on Sunday, with support from Rugby League team Sale Sharks and the BBC Sports broadcasting team. There’s also a rugby-themed quiz and drop-kick contest. T
The Weekender has also teamed up with the Family Friendly Film Club for a special screening of Studio Ghibli’s anime classic Howl’s Moving Castle (Cert. U) in the spooky gothic surroundings of John Rylands Library and there’s something for all ages at the Manchester Museum’s Urban Harvest, part of Manchester Food & Drink Festival.
For a full schedule complete with booking information and ideas about where to eat, sleep and chill in Manchester, visit creativetourist.com