It’s been confirmed that the ‘Floating Earth’ art installation will remain closed temporarily at Salford Quays.
The art installation first arrived in Salford last Thursday evening following its stint at Pennington Flash Nature Reserve in Wigan and quickly began to drawn in visitors from far and wide – but shortly after its arrival, and after the classic Manchester bad weather took a turn for worse, eyewitnesses and festival-goers noticed that it started to deflate and sink into the canal.
Plenty of people took to Twitter to share pictures of the unfortunate event, and then Quays Culture – the organisers of the annual Lightwaves Festival – announced that the installation would be closed temporarily.
“Due to unexpected weather conditions here at The Quays, we’ve had to remove power to Floating Earth and close it temporarily,” Quays Culture said on Twitter at the time.
“We’re really sorry for any disappointment.”
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A follow-up statement from the arts organisation later in the day on Saturday then revealed the decision to temporarily close the entire Lightwaves festival to the public, adding that: “The safety of our staff and visitors is paramount.
“We want you to have the best experience when you visit.”
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Lightwaves 2021 eventually reopened yesterday, but Quays Culture confirmed that ‘Floating Earth’ would remain closed for the time being.
“Due to strong winds forecast in the coming days, we have no choice but to keep Floating Earth temporarily closed but we hope to reopen it later this week [so] check back for updates [and in the] meantime, come and enjoy all the other artworks.”
The floating earth is sinking! 😲🌍
A rescue mission is underway to save Luke Jerram's ‘floating earth’ which took a battering in this weekend's windy weather pic.twitter.com/Kni4c9NifY
The temporary closure of ‘Floating Earth’ at Salford Quays comes after its stay at Pennington Flash was also cut short for the same reason. It was due to remain on the lake for 10 days, but Wigan Council confirmed that it has unfortunately been deflated three days early due to forecasted stormy weather.
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If you’re not sure what ‘Floating Earth’ is, the captivating installation is the work of internationally-acclaimed artist Luke Jerram.
Measuring a whopping 10-metres in diameter and featuring high-tech NASA imagery, as well as a surround-sound musical track by BAFTA award-winning composer Dan Jones, Floating Earth’s appearance at Lightwaves 2021 is designed to “question our relationship with our planet”.
Jerram says he has created this brand-new work to give visitors a “profound understanding of the interconnection of all life”, and a “renewed sense of responsibility” for taking care of the environment.
Lightwaves 2021 is featuring the event’s “most ambitious line-up to date”
Alongside ‘Floating Earth’, 11 other light installations will also be making appearances, including Cygnus by Loomaland – a mesmerising water ballet featuring 12 perfectly synchronised, glowing robot swans – and Sirens by Davy and Kristin McGuire – an installation that uses holographic projections to transform public waterways into mythical underwater worlds inhabited by supernatural sea creatures and mysterious mermaids.
Featured Image – The Manc Group
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Manchester’s historic Portico Library secures £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s Portico Library has secured a whopping £6.4 million grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
In case you missed it, ambitious plans to transform the historic Grade II-listed building on Mosely Street were already unveiled last October… but now, The National Lottery Heritage Fund has announced it is committing £6.4 million of funding towards the project, hoping that the building thrives as the UK’s most sustainable historic library for generations to come.
The grant is being described as a ‘major milestone’ in the approximately £12 million Portico Reunited project.
The Portico Reunited project will look to ‘reunite’ the historic building’s three floors for the first time in over a century, creating a fully-accessible and sustainable cultural library.
Founded all the way back in 1806, The Portico Library played a central role in Manchester’s rise as the world’s first modern city, and since then has been serving as a window into the past and a providing a place of inspiration for anyone who needs it.
The Portico Library has secured a £6.4m funding grant towards its transformation / Credit: Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
Crucially, plans will see a step-free entrance and lift installed to make the library accessible to all.
There’ll also be new exhibition and event spaces introduced as part of the scheme to explore the stories of Manchester’s communities and the city’s heritage. There will a Northern Bookshop, showcasing regional and emerging writers, and independent publishers, as well as a creative Portico Kitchen, which will celebrate the city’s food culture, writing, and history.
A place for school groups, families, and all people to explore Portico’s collection and experiment creatively also forms part of the plans.
Dr Thom Keep, Librarian and CEO of The Portico Library, called the funding grant a ‘landmark moment’ in the Portico’s ‘rich and complex history’, and a ‘huge achievement’ for its staff, trustees, volunteers, and partners.
“Thanks to National Lottery players, we can reunite this extraordinary building and make room for people to discover, learn and create together,” he added.
“We have listened to thousands of people about what the Portico could become, and their ideas and experiences have helped shape these plans.
“Our ambition is a library that belongs to the whole city – a place to discover remarkable collections, question the stories we have inherited, and create new possibilities together.”
Manchester City Council has granted planning permission and listed building consent for the project, and the building is expected to close for construction in late spring 2028 and reopen once again in early March 2030.
Following reopening, the transformed library is expected to welcome around 95,000 visitors each year.
Featured Image – Purcell Architecture (Supplied)
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New data estimates that 7.3m Oasis fans are set to miss out on 2027 tour tickets
Emily Sergeant
New data has revealed that as many as 7.3 million Oasis fans could be set to miss out on tickets to the band’s 2027 tour.
In case you need bringing up to speed a little, it was announced earlier this week that, following the unprecedented success of the reunion tour, Oasis Live ’25, last year, including five nostalgia-drenched gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park, Oasis would be hitting the road once again in 2027, and this time around, they’re going BIG.
We’re talking 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium and a return to the iconic grounds of Knebworth for four special shows there too, kind of ‘big’.
The iconic Manchester band will also be taking to a range of other world-famous stages across the globe, including five nights at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, and major cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Las Vegas.
But despite the elevated number of dates the Gallaghers and co will be performing, some new data has unfortunately revealed that millions of fans may still not be lucky enough to snag a ticket.
The ticketing system for Oasis Live ’27 is not what it was for the last tour, nor will it be similar to many other tours of a similar scale in the past either, as this time, the band and their promotors are taking necessary measures to ensure ‘genuine fans’ get their hands on the tickets and that dynamic pricing doesn’t creep in.
Instead of going into detail on that now though, you can read our full guide on how to get tickets for the Manchester and Knebworth shows here.
Experts at online ticketing platform TicketSource have analysed the scale of demand for Oasis tickets by comparing the 10 million fans worldwide who queued for the initial release of 1.4 million tickets for their 2025 tour, with the newly announced 2027 tour dates and stadium capacities.
With an estimated 2.67 million tickets available across 38 dates and 11 locations between 21 May and 19 September 2027, Oasis could still face huge demand from fans hoping to see them live.
But research reveals the band would need to play 112 Wembley-sized shows to accommodate everyone who tried to get a ticket in 2025.
The 2027 tour would accommodate just 26.7% of those who tried to get tickets last time, meaning almost three-quarters (73%) of them could miss out, leaving a shortfall of more than 7.3 million fans.
Fingers crossed you’re among the lucky lot that secure tickets, though.
Featured Image – Joshua Halling (Press Image – Supplied)
Emily Sergeant -
6th December 2021 
