The Manchester Science Festival will make a glorious return next month, with events for all ages taking place at both the Science and Industry Museum and venues across the city.
This year’s event, taking place between Friday 21 and Sunday 30 October, will celebrate science through immersive performances, interactive activities, and after-hours amusement.
The full programme for the biennial festival – the first live event in four years – has been announced this morning, with tickets available from today.
Highlights across the 10 days will include headline exhibition Turn It Up: The Power of Music, a nocturnal nature tour, and a chance to meet people who already work in STEM careers, including experts from festival sponsors Amazon.
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There’ll also be a world premiere with choreographer Corey Baker, who is going to create the first dance in space with an out-of-this-world immersive experience, where visitors float through a cosmos and their every move affects digital stars and space dust.
Manchester Science Festival is back this October. Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
While the majority of the action will take place at the Science and Industry Museum, other venues like Central Library, the Arndale, and the newly-reopened Castlefield Viaduct will also get stuck in.
Throughout the Manchester Science Festival, events will endeavour to answer the question of ‘what does the future hold for humanity?’.
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Turn It Up will premiere at the Science and Industry Museum itself before heading out on an international tour – a multi-sensory exhibition exploring the mysterious hold music has over us.
The museum’s 1830 Warehouse will be a hive of futuristic activity throughout the festival, showcasing new technologies, hands-on experiments, and the chance to play Rock, Paper, Scissors against a prosthetic counterpart.
Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science MuseumCredit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Sow the City will explore how our future homes could be constructed, including furniture grown from fungus and a Carbon Supermarket where you can try to take on planet-friendly shopping.
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Families can plant and take home their own saplings as City of Trees show the role that trees play in helping to reduce the effects of the climate crisis, and can chat to the Lancashire Wildlife Trust to learn about how to keep nature in their neighbourhoods.
Amazon will host drop-ins and experiments showing off robotics, virtual assistants and more.
Siemens will fund a dedicated eco-friendly construction, where different events with people working in STEM (including Amazon, BBC, Manchester Metropolitan University, PPG, Waters, and AIG) will be held.
Credit: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
After-hours, adults-only events will include the Future of Sex, an evening of performance, workshops, art and conversation to discover the relationship between technology, education and sex.
The Vagina Museum will host crafting workshops where you can make gynaecological bunting, while VR dating app Flirtual will host Virtual Reality dates, and a panel of ‘sexperts’ will host a discussion.
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Over on the new Castlefield Viaduct, the National Trust will host Sky Park After Dark, a nocturnal nature tour of the viaduct, which has been transformed from an abandoned industrial landmark into an urban sky park.
A view across Manchester to Castlefield Viaduct. Credit:James Dobson, National Trust Images
Ella Wild, head of festival and events at the Science and Industry Museum, said: “We’re so excited that Manchester Science Festival is returning for a full-scale, live event in October.
“As a highlight of Manchester’s cultural calendar, it marks a welcome milestone in the city’s cultural recovery but most important of all, it’s a wonderful opportunity for visitors to get hands on with some of science’s most cutting-edge developments while exploring their own ideas and visions for the future.
“We’re working with some incredible partners to give people of all ages, interests and abilities the opportunity to explore science that relates to them.
“From music to robotics and dance to wildlife, this year’s festival is chance for visitors to play, create and discover as they immerse themselves in some really forward-thinking science and technology. We hope they leave the festival feeling entertained, inspired and hopeful about what the future holds for humanity.”
Manchester Science Festival is supported by Amazon (Principal Sponsor) University of Salford (Lead Educational Partner) Waters Corporation (Major Sponsor), PPG (Major Partner) and AIG (Associate Sponsor).
Professor Helen Marshall, Vice-Chancellor, University of Salford (lead educational sponsor of this year’s festival), said: “The relationship between the University of Salford and Manchester Science Festival goes to the heart of our mission as a university – to collaborate with partners to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators.
“Manchester Science Festival is a perfect example of how we can engage with a wide range of audiences and remind people that science can make lives better. A place of innovation, surprise and meaning, where curiosity is ignited. Curiosity and learning should never stop and should never be out of reach, no matter your age, background, education, gender or ethnicity.
“Collaboration and experimentation are at the heart of this festival. It brings us closer together, creating long-lasting partnerships, which is why we love being part of it. This year’s programme is packed with activities to make people look, listen and learn and provides a wonderful opportunity for people to be inspired by science.”
Tickets for Manchester Science Festival, including Turn It Up: The power of music, are now available to book online.
Featured image: The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Art & Culture
INNSiDE North UK launch new intimate gig and event series — from inside a bedroom
Danny Jones
INNSiDE North UK is launching an new series of intimate gigs hosted from a rather unorthodox location: inside a bedroom.
‘INNSiDE The Bedroom’ is the hotel chain’s first exclusive event series and will take place from within the confines of their hotel rooms located in Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle.
Hosted on select nights throughout the coming months, the series kicks off with a performance by Newcastle-based songwriter, Andrew Cushin, who has just come off a number of shows supporting the likes of Noel Gallagher and The Libertines.
Andrew will be taking over Gorilla on Whitworth Street for the second night of his upcoming UK tour and will be playing the first of these unique experiences at just before taking to the stage on 6 October.
Credit: Andrew Cushin
Better still, 10 people will have the chance to get tickets to watch this intimate gig first-hand, complete with full lighting and sound systems, at the four-star INNSiDE Manchester on First Street. Oh yeah, and The Manc will be filming the whole thing.
Not only will the Geordie be entertaining fans in the afternoon with an acoustic set, but the show will be followed by a meet and greet, with welcome drinks will also be offered to guests on arrival. What more could you ask for from a concert inside a bedroom?
Scott Brown, Director of Sales for the UK North arm, said: “We’re so excited to welcome Andrew Cushin to INNSiDE Manchester to kick off this fantastic new series.
He said INNSiDE, operated by Spanish hotel group Meliá, is all about “creating special experiences for our guests, from hosting wellness days to filling our bedrooms with flourishing houseplants, and now touring musicians!”
He added that the team “can’t wait to see Andrew in action and look forward to announcing further acts across [their] hotels” and neither can we, to be honest.
First Street has seen more events than ever following HOME cinema, theatre and gallery’s inaugural Festival this year, with live music playing a key part of the outdoor vibes throughout this summer.
While INNSiDE regularly has live music and DJs in the Open Living Lounge and downstairs lobby areas, this will be the first time the hotel has hosted an event like this in one of its bedrooms. It’s like a throwback to those lockdown livestream loads of musicians did during quarantine only with people in the room!
The ‘INNSiDE The Bedroom’ series is designed to stay in keeping with INNSiDE by Meliá’s philosophy, ‘Stay Curious’, which promises to accommodate guests’ every need with considered comforts and inspiring experiences enriched with music, art and wellness.
As mentioned, the 10 lucky music fans will be able to win the chance to attend the exclusive gig at INNSiDE Manchester via a competition on Instagram, which will also include tickets to the Gorilla gig with Andrew Cushin later that evening, so keep an eye out!
A huge Banksy art exhibit is coming to Media City next month
The Manc
Following several months of speculation, organisers behind touring exhibit The Art of Banksy have announced it will open at MediaCity this October.
Previously, reports had speculated that the exhibit would appear at First Street inside a purpose-built exhibition space, but now it appears the art show is heading to an entirely different location altogether.
Landing in Manchester on 21 October 2022, the exhibit will showcase 145 iconic Banksy pieces all amassed from private collections across the globe to create the world’s largest touring collection of Banksy artworks.
Having travelled to Melbourne, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, Washington DC, Boston, Tel Aviv, Auckland, Toronto, Miami, Gothenburg and London, The Art of Banksy will soon arrive in the north of England.
Visitors will have the chance to experience the infamous artist’s most well-known works alongside those rarely seen by the public, all on loan from private collectors.
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
The Art of Banksy, presented in association with Manchester theatre HOME, will feature a vast number authenticated Banksy works ranging from prints, canvases, limited-edition pieces, unique works and fascinating ephemera.
It represents a rare opportunity to see an overview of Banksy’s work from 2002 to 2017 in a purpose-built 1,200 square metre temporary structure in the heart of MediaCity, offering visitors the chance to view the artist’s work in a way not possible on the street or in any museum or gallery.
Visitors can see the iconic artworks that brought the anonymous artist international acclaim, including Girl With Balloon (2002) in three different colour variations, Flower Thrower (2003), Rude Copper (2002), and Brace Yourself (2010) – a work which made headlines when Banksy gifted the painting to the band formerly known as ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ in exchange for the rights to their name.
A recent poll ranked Girl with Balloon as the United Kingdom’s favourite piece of artwork while Time Magazine has previously included Banksy in its list of the world’s 100 most influential people alongside Barack Obama, Stella McCartney and Steve Jobs.
Image: Supplied
Image: Supplied
The iconoclastic artist’s history of pranks has also contributed to this reputation; they have performed powerful statement acts such as the secret installation of a shredder into Girl With Balloon to make the work self-destruct just moments after it was sold at auction for nearly $1.4 million 2018, transforming the work into Love in the Bin.
The Art of Banksy is an exhibition for all ages – an unmissable show for culture lovers and indeed anyone who wants to learn more about the artist and what their work reveals today; the power of art to affect social change, inspire the public and lay bare the undercurrents of social issues with understated wit.
Please note that the exhibition is not curated or authorized by Banksy. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased via the website here.
Daisy Jackson -
6th September 2022 
