Wave out the old year and salute the new: here’s our annual list of some of the best-looking arts events in the North in 2014.

One of our favourite jobs in the whole year is this: to sift through the press releases and information, call in favours and call up strangers, and then to sit around a table and compile a list of the most intriguing arts events taking place across the North in the coming year. We might not get them all. We might not get it 100% right. But we do, in the process, get a sense of the cultural richness of the coming year.

It’s our fave job of the year: to sift through information, call in favours & call up strangers

We are thus very happy to report that 2014 looks like a belter. From new art spaces and theatres to art festivals that span cities and even continents, from the Grand Départ and a festival of rhubarb to documentary film, blockbuster shows and exhibitions by artists whose names you may not know now, but whose you will before next year is out, the Cultural Calendar is a snapshot of the cultural year to come. Download the Creative_Tourist_Calendar_2014 now, or read it below. We hope you enjoy it.