SHEBEEN Events, Blackjack Brewery and organisers GRUB are joining forces once more for a weekend of music, art, boozing and street food on Saturday 2 May across three venues in the Green Quarter at Runaway Brewery, Glassworks Distribution and Blackjack Brewery.
We want to provide an environment where those fiercely independent creatives can truly flourish
Street food vendors including Busan BBQ, Filfil Falafel, Honest Crust and the city's brand new Manchester Doughnut Company, will be joined by over 40 beers taps and a special one-off collaboration between Manchester-based wine merchants, Reserve Wines, and Liverpool's Spanish restaurant, Lunya, who'll be providing a Barcelona-style wine and tapas bar.
Festivities will be powered by a backing track of local artists and musicians including Manchester DJ collective So Flute and club night favourite Hoya Hoya, while there'll also be comedy curated by ecletic Northern Quarter comedic outfit Sham Bodie and dance by Manchester School of Samba.
Blackjack BreweryFunded by a Kickstarter campaign which raised over £12,000, organisers hope to not just launch a festival but also Keystone - a multi-use arts and events space which they hope will inject some life into what they see as a hugely overlooked part of Manchester city centre.
In the future the group hope the new Green Quarter arts space will host gigs, exhibtions, pop-up restaurants, film screenings, comedy nights, food markets, whatever fits really.
A spokesperson for Shebeen said (in their best Russell Brand impression): "We want to provide an environment where those fiercely independent creatives can truly flourish, spawning a new wave of Manchester entrepreneurs allowing us to choose not to line the pockets of tax-avoiding big business.”
Blimey.
The vast majority of tickets have already been shifted via the group's Kickstarter campaign, however, a scarce few tickets were also available via the Eventbrite page here. If not there's always the back door... or Guerrilla Eats on Shudehill... or Urban Food Fest on Deansgate.
Either way, have a splendid Saturday night.
