Manchester

The north’s biggest beer festival is coming back to Manchester

The UK's biggest beer festival is coming back to Manchester this summer

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant - 17th May 2023

The north’s biggest beer festival is coming back to Manchester this October, as Indy Man Beer Con (IMBC) announces its official 2023 dates.

The beloved Manchester beer festival will return to its home at Victoria Baths from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 October, welcoming some of the finest brewers from the UK and across the globe for four days of tastings, talks, and special beer collaborations.

Tickets have gone live as of today, 17 May, with presale tickets available from Port Street Beer House and The Beagle between6 and 9pm for those who want to make sure they don’t miss out.

Tickets for 2023 start from £14.50 and prices have been frozen, and for the first time ever customers can pre-order bundles of tokens with their tickets – also frozen from last year at a discounted rate of 10 for £25 that won’t be available anywhere else.

Breweries taking part are yet to be confirmed, but in previous years IMBC has welcomes the likes of … X

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Some of these breweries will be with IMBC for the entire weekend, and others will only be in attendance for either the first half of the festival (Thursday/Friday) or the second half (Saturday/Sunday), with the changeover happening in advance of the opening session on Saturday.

As ever, there will also be a street food village at the event with pop-ups from a range of different eateries with everything from pies to pizzas, burgers and chips on hand.

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First launched in Manchester in 2012, the festival has become somewhat of a mecca for northern beer lovers – with people travelling from far and wide to attend and sample all the different weird and wonderful beers on offer.

How to get tickets to IMBC 2023

This year, ticket have been frozen for IMBC despite a rise in costs. This also applies to token prices for those who purchase before 17 June.

Tickets will be priced at:

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Thursday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £14.50
Friday Morning (11am – 4pm) £14.50
Friday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19
Saturday Morning (11am – 4pm) £19
Saturday Evening (5.30pm – 10.30pm) £19
Sunday (1pm – 6pm) £14.50


Your ticket gains you admission to the festival, as well as a commemorative glass to keep (or to
leave, if you’d rather not take it). To be clear: drinks tokens, ticketed tasting sessions, and food
are not included with your ticket.

Refunds on both tickets and pre-ordered tokens will be available up until 11:59pm on Wednesday 20 September 2023 – after this point, IMBC will be unable to provide any refunds under any circumstances.

Token pre-order can only be done at the point of the ticket being purchased, as your pre-order will be
linked to your tickets..

Tokens will function in the same way as they did in 2022: namely, in that it’ll be one token for one
third of a beer across all three days.

Featured image – IMBC

Manchester

Bar Posie – The beautiful new cocktail bar with an oyster happy hour from the team behind 10 Tib Lane

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson The team at Bar Posie

The team behind Manchester’s 10 Tib Lane restaurant are ready to open a brand-new city centre cocktail bar, with an oyster happy hour.

They have announced that Bar Posie will be opening next week in the old Philpotts sandwich shop, right off Market Street.

The brand-new bar for the city centre will be serving cocktails, small plates and bar snacks, at the foot of Bruntwood SciTech’s Bloc building (also home to the Reset by Form pilates studio).

Bar Posie will be doing an aperitvo and oyster happy hour every Tuesday to Sunday between 12pm and 4pm, with £8 aperitivo and oysters for a quid.

It’s all coming from the 10 Tib Lane team, which opened in the old Bock Biere site back in 2021, transforming the space into a cosy multi-storey restaurant with seasonal sharing dishes.

This week, Bar Posie has shared a sneak peek of its menu, which will feature quality plates like confit chicken and wild mushroom croquettes, pork belly skewers, and a bitter leaf salad with buttermilk dressing.

As for drinks, expect cocktails like a cacao nib negroni, a classic vodka martini, and ‘La Isla’, a blend of Aperol, almond, Takamaka koko, mango and melon soda and acid.

That’s alongside conventional and natural wines, craft beer, and plenty of coffee.

Cocktails at Bar Posie
Cocktails at Bar Posie
Highlights of the snack menu
Highlights of the snack menu
A selection of snacks and cocktails at Bar Posie
A selection of snacks and cocktails at Bar Posie
Bar Posie is just off Market Street
Bar Posie is just off Market Street
Inside Bar Posie
Inside Bar Posie
Inside Bar Posie
Inside Bar Posie
Credit: The Manc Group

The space itself will be split into a mix of cosy booth seating, bar seats, and al fresco dining across two levels, with the cocktail bar at the very heart of everything.

Sophie Robson from Posie said: “We’re thrilled to finally be opening the doors to Posie. We’ve put all our passion and expertise into curating a menu that feels fresh and exciting, and into creating a space where people feel comfortable, looked after and relaxed.

“We can’t wait to welcome guests and show them the best of Posie.”

Matt Pazos, Retail Commercial Manager for Bruntwood SciTech, commented: “We’re delighted to welcome Posie to the Bloc community.

“The team’s unique style is clear to see in the space, transforming it into a beautiful and inviting bar with an innovative menu offering that is testament to their expertise.

“Posie will make a fantastic addition to Manchester’s food and drink scene and we can’t wait to see how the brand grows in the coming months.”

Bar Posie will open in Bruntwood SciTech’s Bloc building on Tuesday 4 November.

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Featured image: Supplied

Manchester

Fast-rising alt-rock cult favourites Keo announce Manchester gig on new UK tour

Danny Jones Danny Jones Keo O2 Manchester Ritz gig tickets

Up-and-coming alternative rock band Keo have just announced a new UK tour and “most ambitious chapter yet” in terms of live performances, including a Manchester gig that we CANNOT wait for.

Combining the likes of post-grunge, garage rock and more, Keo are one of the most exciting and fast-emerging new acts in the space right now, having seen their recent run of half a dozen domestic shows sell out completely.

Pulling influences from artists of The Smashing Pumpkins and Soundgarden, as well as most notably fellow contemporaries and former tour partner, Wunderhorse, they’re well-positioned at the front of the guitar-driven revival and are bound for big things. We’re by no means the only ones banking on it either…

Having been described as “already that band” by Dork and delivering “a sound that has given UK guitar its biggest kick up the fretboard in years” by Rolling Stone, you can bet tickets for these shows will be snapped up in seconds, too.

Set to play their biggest Manchester venue to date, Keo will be playing the O2 Ritz on Whitworth Street next spring, and let us tell you, that sprung floor is not ready…

Co-fronted by two brothers, Finn and Conor Keogh (originally from Devon before ultimately getting their music careers underway in the capital), the now London-based group make quite a racket for just the four of them.

That being said, they also do quiet moments well, too, as seen in several of the ‘calm before the storm’ breakouts in songs like ‘Thorn’, ‘Fly’, ‘Crow’ and many more.

If you like anything close to grunge or even just shoegazey riffs, trust us, they’ll be right up your street.

One of the most exciting parts about this lot is how feverishly their fans have packed out their audiences all over the country, somehow learning every single word to every song before most of the material had even been released on any kind of platform. They’ve led with their live reputation – and it shows.

Case and point – the crowd at The Key Club in Leeds, where our mates over at The Hoot got to witness them up close and personal as the entire room erupted in a chorus of screams about a girl called Amber:

“To be playing venues like these with only five songs out still feels surreal”, says lead singer Finn Keogh. “We always imagined we’d reach this level after years of supporting other bands, but somehow we’ve skipped that step.

“It’s mad, come March, our biggest indoor shows will have been our own. Electric Ballroom [in London] is a special one for me personally; I’ve seen some life-changing gigs there. To be on that stage this time around is going to feel unreal.”

Listing a total of 16 live show dates up and down the country throughout March and April of 2026, it’s fair to say we Mancs are excited to see them playing their biggest room in our city to date, having absolutely smashed Gorilla this past October.

Tickets for Keo at the O2 Ritz in Manchester go on sale next Wednesday, 5 November at 10am; you can get ready to grab yours right HERE.

The debut release from Keo has delighted fans and critics alike, and their Manchester gig is sure to be a stormer.

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Featured Images — Hermione Sylvester (supplied)

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