Manchester Histories Festival | 5 Things Not To Be Missed

Confidentials 19 May 2016

POET John Leland said in 1538 that "Mancestre....is the fairest, best buildied, quikkest and most populus Tounne of al Lancastreshire" while, two centuries later, Percival Barlow declared it ‘opulent, well built’ and its women ‘esteemed handsome’.

With 180 events to go at - and most of them free - the only problem is how to choose...

These days it’s more likely to be rock stars than intrepid explorers waxing lyrical about the city - Noel Gallagher said it ‘comes from the heart’, whilst Stone Roses’ Ian Brown drily observed it ‘has everything but a beach’ - yet Manchester’s draw as iconic metropolis and ‘a place where people do things’ persists.

When Benjamin Disraeli argued that what Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow, he had a fair point: industrial city, votes for women, precision engineering, computers, the modern canal, even UFO landing pads... Manchester got there first.

All of which has produced a landscape unique to the city: one that spans red brick paper mills to gleaming glass flats, Victorian canal networks to stainless steel landmarks and neo-Gothic gems. It’s this heritage that Manchester Histories Festival celebrates biennially over ten jam-packed days, promising a 180-strong medley of events from 3-12 June; spanning LGBT music to the Boys in Blue and reggae’s early pioneers.

With 180 events to go at - and most of them free - the only problem is how to choose. We’ve picked five of the best to help you along...

QUARRY BANK PRESENT LIPSERIVICE THEATRE COMPANY | Cross Street Chapel | Saturday 4 June

If you’ve not already seen ‘Britain’s favourite literary lunatics’, now’s your chance. Comic due Maggie Fox and Sue Ryder celebrate 30 years of LipService this year with a special season of historical figures. Find out more about the Gregs, one of the most significant local families that you’ve never heard of, with this fun-filled jaunt into Manchester’s industrial past.

Cross Street Chapel, Cross Street, M2 1NL (1pm and 4pm; tickets £12 from nationaltrust.org.uk).

LipService Theatre Company

PROGRESS | Rogue Artists’ Studio | 4-12 June

Also celebrating a birthday milestone, Rogue Artists’ Studios - the largest outside London - is 21 this year and marks the occasion with a one-off exhibition in the evocative surrounds of Grade II listed Crusader Mill. Featuring installation, film, painting and drama, eleven artists will consider the building’s transitional state and the industrial heritage of its surrounding landscape.

Rogue Artists' Studios & Project Space, 66-72 Chapeltown Street, M1 2WH (12-5pm; free).

Progress

RADICALS ASSMEBLE! AFTER HOURS | People’s History Museum | Thursday 9 June

The People’s History Museum kicks off its monthly after-hours programme with talks, performances, and an audience with inspirational activist Betty Tebbs. Ideas worth fighting for have often been debated under the cover of darkness, away from prying eyes: expect radical heroes, lively debates and quirky happenings in this series of secretive gatherings - plus evening explorations of all the museum’s galleries.

People's History Museum, Left Bank, Spinningfields, M3 3ER (5-8pm; free).

People's History Museum

CELEBRATION DAY | Saturday 11 June

Bringing together histories and heritage groups from across Greater Manchester, Celebration Day forms the festival centrepiece. As well as 90 exhibitors, including John Rylands and English Heritage, visitors can expect; a digital treasure hunt, Beethoven orchestra performance, a discussion on the history of homelessness and a tile-making workshop to commemorate the anniversary of the Somme. Free talks, meanwhile, span Angel Meadow to why ice cream was created by Italian ice cream makers in Manchester. There’ll even be an hourly heritage bus.

Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, M2 5DB (10.30am-4pm; free).

John Rylands Library

WoMANCHESTER CYCLE TOUR | Town Hall | Sunday 12 June

Whilst Emmeline Pankhurst ultimately emerged victorious in the WoManchester statue campaign, the iconic suffragist isn’t the only local woman to have built the bedrock of female liberation (more here). Manchester Bike Tours takes visitors around sites related to all six women shortlisted for the new statue, including: Elizabeth Raffald, Elizabeth Gaskell (who will also be celebrated in a promenade performance through her home on Plymouth Grove), Margaret Ashton, Ellen Wilkinson, Louise Da-Cocodia and Pankhurst.

Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, M2 5DB (11am-2pm; tickets £15 from eventbrite.com).