A weekend-long beer garden festival will return to Manchester this summer as Kampus welcomes the return of Manchester’s beloved Summer Beer Thing festival.
Back for 2023 and promising to be ‘bigger than ever’, tickets have just been released for the celebration which is set to take over the waterside garden neighbourhood from Friday 30 June to Sunday 2 July.
Bringing together beers from some of the UK’s top breweries, those heading down can expect to find a huge array of styles on offer as well as a few ‘festival specials’ – one-off drinks created for the occassion by each of Kampus’ indie bars and restaurants.
The summer fixture is the sister festival to Indy Man Beer Con, staged at Victoria Baths. Since starting in Manchester in 2017, it’s gone from strength to strength: attracting thousands of beer lovers eager to try the latest brews, as well as those new to craft ale looking for an accessible way to get involved and try something different.
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Summer Beer Thing will this year collaborate with the likes of Nell’s, Great North Pie, Seven Bro7hers, Red Light, Madre and Three Little Words to make 2023 the biggest line-up yet.
Louise Bruin at Summer Beer Thing, said: “Summer Beer Thing started as a showcase festival to get people together in the sunshine and celebrate all the seasonal ales from the UK’s best breweries. Year on year it’s grown and we now have thousands joining us over each weekend.
“Recent years have been really challenging for independent breweries, so it’s vital we get behind them. What better way than a massive summer party? This year will be all about seasonal bevs in the city’s best beer garden at Kampus. We’re going to pack the space with taps and collaborate with all the Kampus independents to offer more food and drink choices than ever before.”
Adam Brady, from HBD, said: “Summer Beer Thing brings with it an incredible and welcoming community of beer-lovers who are passionate about supporting the region’s best independent breweries. Plus they know how to party. It’s brilliant that the three-day celebration is returning to the Kampus garden, this time striking up one-off collaborations with the community of independent business based here.”
Kampus, the canalside neighbourhood developed by Capital&Centric and HBD, is enjoying a summer run of residencies, new openings and new menus from established independent traders.
Ticket holders receive a branded glass and can purchase tokens to spend at a range of festival bars featuring craft beers, fruits and sours, hoppy, hoppier and session beers as well as a range of non-beer drinks.
Featured image – Supplied
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Manchester’s historic connections to slavery will be at the heart of a major new exhibition
Emily Sergeant
Manchester’s historic connections to slavery are to be explored during a major new exhibition coming soon to the city.
The Science and Industry Museum, in the heart of our city centre, is already known and loved for telling the story of the ideas and innovations that transformed Manchester into the world’s first industrial city.
But now, a new free exhibition is set to “enhance public understanding” of how transatlantic slavery actually shaped the city’s growth.
Produced by the Science and Industry Museum, in partnership with The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement programme, and developed with African descendent and diaspora communities through local and global collaborations, this landmark project will put Manchester’s historic connections to enslavement at the heart of a major exhibition at the museum for the first time.
Featuring new research, it will also explore how the legacies of these histories continue to impact Manchester, the world, and lives today.
Set to open in early 2027, the exhibition will run for a year in the museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery.
Alongside that hub at the Science and Industry Museum itself, the project is also set to have a collaborative city-wide events programme, and a lasting legacy – with a new permanent schools programme, and permanent displays in the future too.
As mentioned, the new exhibition is part of The Scott Trust Legacies of Enslavement programme, which is a 10-year restorative justice project launched in 2023.
Manchester’s historic connections to slavery will be at the heart of a major new exhibition / Credit: Science Museum Group Collection
Through partnerships and community programmes, the project aims to improve public understanding of the impact of transatlantic slavery on the UK’s economic development, and its ongoing legacies for Black communities – with a strong focus on Manchester, the city in which The Guardian was founded back in 1821.
The museum’s existing gallery content and ongoing work around sharing the inextricable links between Manchester’s growth into an industrial powerhouse and a textile industry reliant on colonialism and enslavement will be developed through the project.
Through a “collaborative re-examination of the past”, the exhibition will also share a more inclusive history of a city that prides itself on being at the forefront of ideas that change the world.
It’s opening at the Science and Industry Museum in early 2027 / Credit: Science and Industry Museum
Speaking ahead of the exhibition’s arrival in early 2027, Sally MacDonald, who is the Director of the Science and Industry Museum, says: “This will be an exhibition about important aspects of our past that are profoundly relevant to the world we live in today.
“Revealed from the perspectives of those who experienced enslavement and whose lives have been shaped by its legacies, we will foreground stories of resistance, agency, and skill.
“The exhibition will explore themes of resilience, identity and creativity alongside exploitation and inequality, and will feature a specific focus on the ways that scientific and technological developments both drove and were driven by transatlantic slavery.”
Further details on the project will be announced in due course, so stay tuned.
Featured Image – Science Museum Group
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Charlotte Dawson will be handing out compliments and big prizes in Manchester to brighten Blue Monday
Daisy Jackson
TV star Charlotte Dawson will be cheering up Blue Monday in Manchester, dishing out compliments to strangers and awarding some big prizes too.
The actress, who is the daughter of the legendary late Les Dawson, will be bringing her signature sunny energy to Printworks on Monday 20 January.
Otherwise known as Blue Monday, it’s believed that the third Monday in January is the most depressing day of the year – so she’s here to nip that in the bud.
Between 1pm and 3pm on the huge gaming screen inside Printworks – part of its £21m transformation that included adding a huge digital ceiling – Charlotte Dawson will be spreading joy and laughter.
She’ll be live streaming straight to passers-by, spreading smiles and dishing out compliments.
Charlotte will also be treating visitors to some amazing prizes from Printworks’ collection of bars, restaurants and leisure venues.
These prizes will include free brunch for four at Walkabout, gaming sessions at Bierkeller, or family cinema tickets with Ice Blasts at VUE. Other prizes include Nando’s vouchers, a drink and activity for two at the new Trax Social, and much more.
And the top prize will be a luxury overnight stay for two at Hotel Indigo, just across the road in the very heart of Manchester.
Charlotte Dawson will take part in Blue Monday at Printworks, Manchester
There’ll even be free coffee vouchers for Todd St Cafe on offer to brighten your Blue Monday.
Kristian Brennan, Marketing Manager at Printworks, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to have Charlotte at Printworks this Blue Monday.
“As a true Mancunian icon, her vibrant personality is exactly what we need to brighten up the most depressing day of the year and we know she’ll bring plenty of laughs and smiles to everyone who stops by.
“What makes this event truly unique is the opportunity for the public to chat with Charlotte under Europe’s largest digital ceiling, which will showcase new mood-boosting content.
“It’s an innovative and exciting way for people to connect, and we can’t wait to see families and friends come together to create joyful memories in this truly unique setting!”
Georgina Pellant -
25th April 2023 
