Salford has just got its first-ever interactive trail that celebrates the incredible legacy of the city’s music and cultural footprint.
Made possible through The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to money raised by National Lottery players, Echo Salford is is a brand-new and immersive augmented reality (AR) experience that takes users all across Salford to the places and spaces that best showcases the city and borough’s iconic musical and cultural history.
Starting at MediaCity, and taking in the sights of Salford Lads Club, Islington Mill, and Maxwell Hall along the way, before ending at the infamous Kings Arms, the trail promises to take people on a “mind-opening visual and audio journey”.
The ultimate aim of the trail is to “inspire and educate” people, all while showing just how important Salford is to the culture of Greater Manchester.
Accessed via the Echo Salford app, the trail will enable users to launch an AR experience at each location, view never-before-seen images, create musical content and other digital takeaways, and downloadable memorabilia too.
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From exploring the Edwardian elegance and Smith’s room at the Salford Lads Club, with history spanning over 100 years, to immersing yourself in the artistic epicentre of Islington Mill – which is creating a new wave of artists and creators to this day – Echo Salford is also said to be a “celebration” of the “diversity and inclusion that runs through the city”.
You’ll event get to submit a poem in the style of the wondrous John Cooper Clarke at The Lowry, which he’ll also personally review and award prizes to the best of.
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A new interactive AR trail celebrating Salford’s music and culture has just launched / Credit: The Lowry | Wikimedia Commons
Not enough to get you hooked?
How about the fact that you’ll even be able to enjoy the dulcet tones and supporting commentary of some local and national treasures around the trail too? Think guidance from the likes of Peter Hook, Maxine Peake, and John Cooper Clarke, as well as the next generation of incredible talent from the city such as Priya Matharu, and Cheddar Gorgeous.
Ultimately, the creators of Echo Salford say the app is about “sharing, uncovering, and restoring” heritage content.
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It will so this all while supporting new and future music in Salford, as well as providing career opportunities for both students and early-stage professionals as they start their media production careers too.
Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett says the Echo Salford app is “a perfect example of the world-class innovation produced here in Salford”.
Launch day is finally here for @EchoSalford – the first ever Salford immersive culture and music trail app! 📱
He continued: “This wonderful immersive trail shows off Salford’s vibrant cultural and musical past, present and future.
“Bringing buildings and people to life in front of our eyes, there are many Salford greats to spot along the route [and] I would encourage residents and visitors interested in music, culture, or local history to download the app.
“It really is a fun way to explore Salford at your own pace.”
Akon speaks on his connection to Manchester after run of Co-op Live gigs
Danny Jones
Music veteran Akon has recently discussed his connection to our city following his run of live shows here in Manchester.
In fact, he went so far as to say he feels much more affinity here than he does with ‘The Big Smoke’.
The seasoned Senegalese-American rapper, singer-songwriter, entrepreneur and humanitarian, teamed up with fellow chart-topper Ne-Yo for not just one, not even two, but three whole nights at Co-op Live this May as part of their co-headline tour across the UK and Ireland.
Chatting with Simone Riley on BBC Radio Manchester before the third and final gig of the trio, Akon admitted that there’s “something about Manchester” that he loves way more than London.
As you can see, while he couldn’t quite put his finger on what exactly is about it in the North compared to the capital, he said simply that “it’s crazy here”, and he loves it.
Same, mate. Same.
Admitting that he feels “more attached to Manchester than London” and labelling the energy from the crowds as “stupid” up here (he meant it in a good way, we promise), Simone couldn’t help but confess her joy over his comments.
He’s not the only global superstar to have recently shouted out their affection for 0161, either, as Billie Eilish also said something similar.
Speaking to the mainline BBC at the premiere of her Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D), she said that while the dates lining up were certainly a key factor, there were other reasons why she chose Manchester to film her new movie.
Our Audio North team were also lucky enough to chat with Akon’s touring partner Ne-Yo recently, too, who also had nothing but good things to say about us as a place to play.
As for Akon, the 53-year-old has obviously played here plenty of times over the decades, with last year’s tour being his first return in a decade.
That being said, given how glowingly he’s spoken about us and how popular these joint performances were, we reckon it won’t be that long before he comes back.
Last but not least, we obviously couldn’t resist going along to at least one of the nights for ourselves; listen to what we had to say about the tour in our full review down below.
Antony Szmeirek announces second album along with biggest UK tour dates yet
Danny Jones
Greater Manchester spoken word artist Antony Szmeirek has finally revealed the name, cover art and release date for his second album, along with his biggest run of UK tour dates yet.
The Tameside teacher turned full-time artist dropped his maiden record, Service Station at the End of the Universe, back in February 2025, and now, just over a year on from its launch, he’s getting ready to deliver his highly anticipated follow-up.
Entitled Decoding Birdsong, the sophomore studio project is scheduled for this summer, with a series of live shows booked for the following autumn.
Having already dropped lead single ‘The Heron’ earlier this year, Szmeirek has just released the opener from his upcoming LP, which is simply called ‘Chalk’; he’s also unveiled the rest of the tracklist and a rather striking bit of album artwork.
The Hyde-born artist is making big moves not only within the spoken word space but across multiple genres, with his music blending everything from indie, hip-hop, electronica and more.
His latest song, for instance, is more of an acid-house-esque meets contemporary EDM outing, and has quickly gone down as a popular addition among fans.
On the album name itself, he’s never one to shy away from a weird title or two – case in point, ‘The Great Pyramid of Stockport’ from his debut and ‘Dave’s Angling Superstore’ on this new record.
The 34-year-old carries that same idiosyncrasy throughout his lyricism and creative concepts, as well.
‘Chalk’ is a perfect example of this, as the song is inspired by The Edge of Everything documentary: a film about the career of legendary British snooker player, Ronnie O’Sullivan.
Here’s the music video…
As for his latest raft of live shows, these will be some of the biggest domestic gigs that the local lad has played in his career so far.
In addition to a pair of hometown shows here in Manchester, he is set to play a dozen different cities across Great Britain and Ireland.
Antony Szmierek UK/IE tour dates – October 2026
We’ve highlighted the Northern stops for you, too:
Emily Sergeant -
9th September 2023 
