IT’S A DISCO. SHHH
Once the sole buffoonery of music festivals, the silent disco, which allows the user to choose music through wireless headphones, was first imagined in an obscure 1969 Finnish sci-fi film, Ruusujen Aika, and picked up by 90s hippies so as not to scare birds at outdoor parties. Now a ubiquitous club fixture, this silent disco with 70s, 80s and 90s classics is still a great excuse to watch everybody dance like a twat. Silent Disco/Sixxis/Whitworth St/Fri 16 May/10pm-3am/£6 tickets here.
ANNIE ARE YOU OK?
Premiering at Manchester’s Opera House before setting out on a UK tour, Irving Berlin’s 1946 musical Annie Get Your Gun is the story of mean-shot Annie Oakley, who falls for the Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show’s star, Frank Butler, when the show rolls into town. Featuring Jason Donovan, Norman Pace And Emma Williams, the musical features classics There’s No Business Like Show Business and Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better. Annie Get Your Gun/Opera House/Fri 16 May-Sat 24 May/Confidential £25 best seat offer (PROMOCODE: ManCon)
RUDDY BIG LIZARD
The original city-leveller, Toho Co.’s original daikaiju (translation: massive pissed-off dinosaur-lizard) first burst from Tokyo Bay 60 years ago, a crocodilian theriomorphised manifestation inspired by the nuclear devastation wrought on Japan during WW2. This latest summer Hollywood blockbuster features Bryan Cranston (Walter from Breaking Bad) as Joe Brody, a paranoid Tokyo nuclear plant who suspects a tragic accident caused by strange seismic activity is something more sinister. Unsurprisingly, it is. And it’s not only Godzilla that’s got sand in its crack. Godzilla/Cinemas from Thurs 15 May/MCR showtimes here
MORE FOURS
Cricket without the boring bits. Break for lunch? Break for tea? No I’ll have lunch and tea and you just keep on bloody playing pal. That’s what we’ve paid for. T20, with twenty overs of high-octane slugs and smashes is practically a different sport all together to Test cricket, except it’s the same game. Different sport, same game. Possibly different game, same sport. Get it? Good. The new NatWest T20 Blast season kicks launches in Spinningfields this Friday with a live-screening of Lancashire’s first match of the season (vs Nottinghamshire), live music, comedy, games and booze. Well, where there’s booze there’s a Freddie. NatWest T20 Blast Season Launch with LCCC/Spinningfields Lawns/Fri 16 May/5.30pm/FREE/More here
SUBURBAN FEST
With ten days of music, comedy, performance and art in over 40 venues across Chorlton-cum-Hardy, the Chorlton Arts Festival is back for its fourteenth year. The festival boasts an impressive 130 events spread across the suburb (80% of which are free), with organisers hoping to surpass last year’s record of 20,000 plus visitors. As part of the festival, the Chorlton Weekender will welcome top guitarist John Smith, Liam ‘Mancunian Bruce Springsteen’ Frost and Paper Aeroplanes. Full festival schedule here. Chorlton Arts Festival/Chorlton (funny that)/Fri 16-Sun 25 May/Mostly FREE/More here
CITY SPRINT
Yohan Blake, teammate of Usain Bolt and double Olympic champion, will take on Bolt’s 150m world record of 14.35s along Deansgate on Saturday 17 May. Pulling world class athletes out of the arena and onto the street, the BT Great City games, now in its sixth year, will bring athletics to the heart of the city with a purpose built running track along Deangate and a pop-up athletics arena in Albert Square. Amongst the athletes this year are: Olympic and World Champion runner Christine Ohuruogu (UK), Olympic Champion hurdler Felix Sanchez (Dominican Republic) and Olympic Champion Long-Jumper Greg Rutherford (UK). BT Great City Games/Deansgate and Albert Sq/Sat 17 May/10am-3pm/FREE/More here
The Moon Under Water were giving out free pints
TWINKLE TOES
A one-night-only performance from the English National Ballet at the Imperial War Museum North to mark the 1WW Centenary, Second Breath,inspired by letters, diaries, photographs and personal stories from IWM’s national collections has been specially created by award-winning British choreographer Russell Maliphant. The evening includes poetry, dance, art and DJs. Second Breath: English National Ballet/IWM North/Sat 17 May/7.45pm and 8.30pm/Tickets £10 here
MORE RUNNING
Now in its twelfth year, the Bupa Great Manchester Run is Europe’s largest 10k running event and has welcomed an estimated quarter of a millions runners and raised around £22million for charity since the first event in 2003. The race, which will be broadcast live on BBC Two (10am-12.30pm), will see 40,000 runners, including three-time Olympic Champion Kenenisa Bekele (Ethopia) and marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang (Kenya), set off from Oxford Street out to Old Trafford, through Salford Quays and back to the finish at Beetham Tower. Go clap 'em on. Bupa Great Manchester Run/Start Oxford St/Finish Beetham Tower/Sun 18 May/FREE to spectate/More here
RUGBY MAGIC
The highlight of the Super League season, the Magic Weekend sees all fourteen Super League teams gather their supporters in one place to play over the weekend, with four games on Saturday and three on Sunday. Winning in each of the previous two Etihad fixtures, it’ll once again be the Salford Red Devil’s time to shine against Widnes while the heavyweight clash takes place on Saturday’s final fixture, with Wigan Warriors facing off against Leeds Rhinos. The groundsman will be crying into the pitch come Monday. Super League Magic Weekend/Etihad Stadium/Sat 17-Sun 18 May/Day and weekend tickets here
BRAIN PIE
Pi, or the Platform for Investigation, is the pop-up home of the museum’s new monthly contemporary science programme showcasing live experiments, cutting edge research and art/science collaborations using high-tech audiovisuals, light displays and technology that allow scientists and artists to bring their work to life and be general smartarses. The latest showcase, Brain Attack, 'will help you to better understand the workings of the brain' with talks, a pig brain dissection and microscopes 'n' that. Brain Attack/MOSI/Sat 17 May/10.30am-3.30pm/FREE
AT THE COPA...
Not only is Manilow still alive and singing, but he’s also failed to age a day - that’s what being vacuum packed in Las Vegas does to you. The one off show is worth the entry fee alone for karaoke classic Copacabana. Barry Manilow/Phones4u Arena/Sun 18 May/Tickets £18.40-£70
BIRDS, BIRDS EVERYWHERE
Sometimes the city can be too much. Hectic and rambunctious. That’s why, toward the end of the eighteenth century and in reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the Romantics invented the countryside. Not strictly in the countryside (being in Salford) but green enough, the Salford Mosses Family Nature Walk and Picnic is packed full of birds: Peregrines, Yellowhammers, Sparrows, Cranes, Skylarks, Buzzards, Owls and Partridges. Might get to see some fracking too. Heard that’s popular.Salford Mosses Family Nature Walk and Picnic/Meet at Barton Moss Road/Midday-5pm/Sun 18 May/FREE
Eh?
WETFIELDS
Writing about rain in Manchester is just about the most boring thing a writer can do. That and a writing a travel piece on the Welsh village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyll. Still, since it began nearly every Screenfields on Spinningfields Lawns has been met by what is now referred to as the 'Screenfields monsoon'. Funny really. Excpet when those six people were swept into the Irwell last week. Still, soldier on they do. This time around at the outdoor cinema is Cocktail, a film about Tom Cruise making drinks. Bring a dingy. Screenfields:Cocktail/Spinningfields Lawns/Thurs 22 May/7pm/£3
PHW-ROAR
Once the raunchiest bi-curious pop princess around, she now looks rather tame in comparison to 'I'll lick anything me' Miley Cyrus. Unfazed by a whirlwind marriage to 'I'll shag anything me, even Miley' Russell Brand, Kate Perry is still topping the charts, most recently with lion taming chart-stomper Roar. Katy Perry/Phones4u Arena/Tues 20 & Sat 24 May/Tickets £45-£84 here
