A brand new, totally free festival will spill into venues in Salford later this year.
The We Invented the Weekend festival will bring together class acts from the worlds of sports, music, comedy, theatre, dance, workshops, talks, food, charity, wellness, crafts and more.
There’ll be everything from water sports on the canal, to community feasts, to workshops, to vintage markets, to live music, right across MediaCity and Salford Quays.
The event has been created in partnership with some cultural heavyweights from the city, including the BBC, The Lowry, the University of Salford, the Royal Horticultural Society, Eat Well MCR, Science and Industry Museum, The Open University’s Business School, HOST, Salford Community Leisure, Salford CVS, Sounds from the Other City and hundreds of community organisations.
The inaugural festival is set to take place across the weekend of 10 and 11 September. It promises to be ‘a festival by the people, for the people’.
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We Invented the Weekend will take over Salford venues – and its waterways. Credit: Supplied
The inspiration for We Invented the Weekend goes all the way back to 1843, when the actual concept of a weekend was invented right here in Greater Manchester.
Robert Lowes (Salford Lyceum director, workers’ rights activist, and also Sir Ian McKellen’s great grandfather) campaigned to win workers the right to leisure time on Saturday afternoons.
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A full programme for We Invented the Weekend will be announced in the coming months, but already confirmed is CBeebies Live Bedtime Stories, the BBC Philharmonic, events at The Lowry, activities at the Science and Industry Museum, and gardening activity from RHS Bridgewater.
We Invented the Weekend will suit all ages. Credit: Supplied
Sounds from the Other city will also pull together a music partnership, expanding from their Chapel Street base to the Quays for the first time.
The Salford Weekend Orchestra with the BBC Philharmonic will invite people across the city to join a mass community performance, with all instruments and abilities welcome. The piece will be composed by Michael Betteridge (artistic director of The Sunday Boys – Manchester’s LBTQ+ low voice choir), and performed in the MediaCity Piazza during the festival.
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Hundreds of community organisations, including cheerleaders, bakers and disco dancers, have been invited to take part.
Key people and organisations involved in developing the festival are Wayne Hemingway MBE who is creative director; Salford’s City Mayor Paul Dennett; Tom Stannard, chief executive of Salford City Council; Julia Fawcett OBE, chief executive of The Lowry; Gwen Oakden, development director at The Lowry; Controller of BBC Radio 5 Live Heidi Dawson; Marketing Manchester’s international marketing director Victoria Braddock and MediaCity place director, Josie Cahill.
Wayne Hemingway MBE said: “The weekend is an intrinsic part of the rhythm of life. It’s hard to imagine life without the weekend, yet less than 180 years ago it didn’t exist. Happily, Sir Ian McKellen’s great grandad put an end to life without it.
“Greater Manchester can rightly claim to have invented the weekend and is a place that knows how to celebrate it. Whatever your bag, be it boxing or box sets, crafts or cricket, dancing or digging, reading or raving, swimming or samba, kicking back or letting loose, whatever free time means to you, MediaCity and Salford Quays is the place to be on September 10th and 11th for what has all the ingredients to become THE national celebration of free time.”
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Paul Dennett added: “The City of Salford’s motto and the name of our strategy for culture, creativity and the arts is ‘Suprema Lex’, which means ‘The Welfare of the People is the Highest Law’. The welfare of the people of Salford is paramount, and as the cost of living rises, We Invented the Weekend is set to deliver a programme of essential free cultural and creative activity that is open to every community across our city.
“We Invented the Weekend will be a great spectacle, reflecting our proud social history, whilst also animating the fantastic public realm at Salford Quays in true Spirit of Salford style.”
Eyebrows raised as key coach and director of the company set up to buy Salford Red Devils resigns
Danny Jones
Serious eyebrows and questions are being raised as the director of Jacobsen Venture Group (JVG), the company set up to buy local rugby league side Salford Red Devils, has now seemingly resigned from his position.
Krisnan Inu, who is also employed as an assistant coach at Salford Red Devils, appears to have stepped down from his role within the investment group this week, effectively immediately.
This latest development only spells more concern for supporters as yet more uncertainty circles around the Salford Community Stadium that is edging ever closer to the brink.
Reacting to the news on social media, fan organisation The 1873 is now looking for further clarity as to what this means for the future of the club.
Krisnan Inu resigns as director of Jacobsen Venture Group Ltd – the company set up to buy Salford Red Devils.
A major development that raises serious questions about the ownership group, the promised funding, and the people behind it.
Sharing a lengthy open letter of their own, as well as a screenshot of the former New Zealand and Samoan international’s official resignation papers via Companies House, the supporters group have now reiterated their “call for transparency.”
Aside from urging for assurances regarding “stability, and above all else, the safeguarding of Salford Red Devils’ future”, The 1873 have also stated their belief that this signals more key movements behind the scenes that the fan base has not yet been made privy to.
The statement goes on to read: “This is a significant development, given Inu’s longstanding relationship with, and evident support for, Saia Kailahi – Jacobsen Venture Group’s other, and now sole, director.
“Inu has not only been a public backer but, by his own choice, a private supporter of Kailahi’s efforts to assume control of the club. His departure, therefore, raises serious questions.”
It was only back in August that fans, who have already mobilised multiple times in protest of the increasingly shadowy and tight-lipped consortium, slammed the 38-year-old ex-pro for defending the owners and clearly aligning himself with Kailahi, investor Dario Berta and others pulling the strings.
Hundreds marched through the streets before the game against Wakefield Trinity
They go on to speculate: “Would Inu, who also serves as the club’s assistant coach, step away from his role within Jacobsen Venture Group if he retained any confidence that the long-promised bridging loan was about to land, or indeed would ever materialise?
“Or has he now concluded that his trust and support have been misplaced, and simply had enough?”
They also noted that JVG has now moved its registered office from central London to Miles Platting here in Greater Manchester, though this is not the same address as Salford Rouges Diablo Ltd itself.
Continuing, they write: “This has all the hallmarks of the involvement of Steven England [former director], whose name has been linked to previous entities and involvement.”
England joined ex-CEO Paul King in quitting Salford earlier this year; however, the latter ultimately returned to try and help with the ongoing financial crisis.
As they see it, “Inu’s resignation feels like a highly significant indicator of his dwindling confidence in the ownership and by extension, the likelihood of the current financial crisis being resolved under Kallah’s leadership.” Neither the club nor Inu has yet to address the resignation publicly.
Only time will tell if the crucial funds promised so long ago will ever arrive and, more importantly, what this latest development ultimately spells for Salford Red Devils’ fate.
Salford City ‘extremely disappointed’ in Yorkshire Police’s investigation after racist abuse
Danny Jones
Salford City FC have issued a statement expressing their disappointment with Yorkshire Police and the force’s final decision regarding a racist incident earlier this year.
Local authorities in the region opened an investigation into allegations of racism and verbal abuse during a pre-season game between Salford and York City FC back in July.
Now, just over a month later, North Yorkshire Police have concluded their investigation and decided not to pursue charges against the accused individual – an outcome that SCFC have not taken lightly.
Issuing an extensive and frustrated response online, they wrote: “Salford City Football Club is extremely disappointed with the findings of the investigation by North Yorkshire Police (NYP), and the subsequent decision not to charge the individual responsible for the racist abuse aimed at Adebola Oluwo.”
“It is particularly concerning how the investigation concludes that there is no evidence to corroborate the report of abuse, despite a number of first-hand accounts of the abuse from those present at the fixture.
“This includes [by] the match officials, who we know, through discussions with the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO), gave verbal statements on the night and provided their details for the investigating team to follow up, but have not been contacted.”
Oluwo signed for Salford this summer from Barnet FC on a two-year deal, but sadly faced racist abuse before his debut season with the club had even begun.
The 25-year-old explained how “monkey noises” were made in his direction; sitting down with various other senior figures from within the club and around the administration, he and the likes of head coach Karl Robinson made it clear that this kind of treatment is simply unacceptable.
We urge you to watch this in full.
The club statement continues: “Having spoken with Adebola and sought further advice on the matter, including legal, we will be exercising the Victims’ Right to Review Scheme to request an independent review to reconsider this outcome.
“Our players, coaching staff, members and everybody at our Club stand united with Adebola, and we have also engaged the English Football League (EFL), the Professional Footballers ‘ Association (the players’ union), and Kick It Out, who have all offered their full and unequivocal support for the review application.
“The match officials, supported by their governing body PGMO, remain available to be contacted to provide their impartial accounts of events that evening. We will pursue every available avenue to ensure accountability, and together send a clear message that racism has no place in our sport.”
SCFC sign off by insisting that they will be adding no further comment, but supporters, both local and beyond, have certainly had plenty to say online.
York City themselves made it clear at the time that everyone assosciated with the fellow Northern side categorically “condemns racism in all forms” and assured they would cooperate with Salford and the police service on the investigation.
York City Football Club are horrified to learn of allegations of racial abuse aimed at Salford City players in this evening’s pre-season match.
Both clubs, alongside the match officials, decided to take both teams off the pitch at that time.
While it is distressing to learn that NYP won’t be proceeding with the hate crime that was so openly and emotionally acknowledged by both teams, ‘The Minstermen’ did reiterate that the 23-year-old arrested at the time “will face the strongest possible sanctions from the club.”
In terms of the update from ‘The Ammies’, one user replied: “North Yorkshire police? Failure to bring charges? Suggesting [a] lack of evidence? Nooooooo, never. They don’t seem the type.”
Another added: “Was this case referred to the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], who decided not to charge; or did North Yorkshire Police not refer it to them for a decision? Tough to know who to be p***ed-off with until that is clear.”
We can only echo the post shared by Salford City FC and stress how disheartening it is to still see situations like this arising. It also goes without saying that we send our support to Adebola Oluwo and everyone at the club during this difficult time.
Not only is ‘the beautiful game’ for everyone, but the only way we can ever even hope for racism to be completely kicked out of football is for decisive, consistent and punitive action to be taken in moments like this and more often, as we know the number of incidents that occur is far higher than those reported.
Daisy Jackson -
18th May 2022 
