It’s been two very dry years, but at last the Independent Manchester Beer Convention (Indy Man Beer Con/IMBC) is coming back to Manchester.
Hailed as the city’s biggest and best celebration of craft beer, the festival will be bringing some of the world’s best breweries to Manchester’s Victoria Baths this October for a four-day knees-up.
Every year Indy Man Beer Con makes hundreds of beers available for ticket holders to sample, both from top brewers based in Manchester and across the globe, with various ticketed time slots spread across the weekend.
But thanks to various restrictions, it’s now been nearly three years since an event has been held, with two now missed due to the Covid pandemic.
In that time, the beer world has changed quite a lot. Thanks to lockdown, lots of talented brewers have split away to open up their own shops, and the general turmoil Covid has caused in hospitality has led even more in the bar world to break away and experiment with making their own beer.
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As a result, it looks like there could be some exciting new breweries tipped to exhibit at the celebrated beer festival this year.
Image: IMBC
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.
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This year’s focus on sustainability and environmental awareness of the impact of the brewing industry sees special, cross-Atlantic collaborative brewing and innovative approaches to recycling spent products.
How to get tickets to IMBC 2022
Taking place over four days from September 29th-October 2nd, tickets are priced between £14.50 and £19.and go on sale on Thursday 14 April via indymanbeercon.co.uk/tickets/
Early Bird tickets will be available, with both Port Street Beer House in the Northern Quarter, and The Beagle in Chorlton running pre-sale events on Wednesday 15 April between 6pm- 9pm.
To celebrate, the two venues will each be giving free treats out to those in attendance. Port Street will have slices of Nell’s NYC 22” pizza, while The Beagle will be cracking open mystery sharing bottles from past IMBC’s for some free tasters.
Feature image – IMBC
News
Police appeal to find next of kin after man found outside Palace Theatre
Daisy Jackson
Police are trying to track down the family of a man who died after being found unresponsive outside the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
The man, who has now been named as Jonathan Bernard Carroll, was seen outside the city centre theatre at around 6.30am on Tuesday 12 November.
Emergency services rushed to the scene and Mr Carroll was taken to hospital.
Tragically, the 47-year-old passed away a short time later.
A large cordon was in place on Whitworth Street and Oxford Road while police and security attended the incident.
Greater Manchester Police are now appealing to find his next of kin.
It’s believed that he resided in the Salford area of Greater Manchester.
Anyone with any information should contact the Coroner’s Office on 0161 856 1376.
Greater Manchester public urged to help get people ‘off the streets and on their feet’ before Christmas
Emily Sergeant
Locals are being urged to help get hundreds of people “off the streets and back on their feet” this festive season.
As the temperatures told colder by the day, and Christmas creeps closer and closer, Greater Manchester Mayor’s Charity is bringing back ‘1000 Beds for Christmas’, and the massively-important initiative is aiming to provide 1,000 nights of accommodation to people at risk of homelessness before the big day arrives.
Forming part of the ongoing ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme, this festive fundraising mission is designed to provide food, shelter, warmth, and dedicated vital wrap-around support for those who need it most.
The charity says it wants to build on the “incredible success of 2023”, which raised more than £55,000 and provided 1,800 nights of accommodation.
Stockport-based property finance specialists, Together – which has supported the campaign for the last two years – has, once again, generously pledged to match every public donation for the first £20,000 raised.
Unfamiliar with the ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme? Since 2017, when rough sleeping peaked, the initiative has helped ensure a significantly-higher rate of reduction in the numbers of people facing a night on streets in Greater Manchester than seen nationally.
The landmark scheme has given people the chance to rebuild their lives, while also giving them access to key services and opportunities that allows them to stay off the streets for good.
Despite the scheme’s recent success, organisations across Greater Manchester are under “a huge amount of pressure” to meet the demand for their services this winter, and given the current economic outlook, household budgets will continue to be squeezed – leaving people on the sharp end of inequality and poverty.
Georgina Pellant -
11th April 2022 
