The New Year edit: Creative Tourist’s Cultural Calendar 2016

Polly Checkland Harding

Our annual list of some of the best-looking arts events in the north in 2016.

One of our favourite jobs of the year is this: to call in favours and call up strangers, then sift through the press releases and information for a whole new year of culture across the north. The result? The Creative Tourist Cultural Calendar – our pick of the very best and most intriguing arts events in the coming year.

Our pick of the very best and most intriguing arts events in 2016

2016 is looking no less special than the rest: there’s an exhibition devoted to the world’s newest (and strangest) material, Graphene, a one-off from Manchester International Festival, art from the likes of Tracey Emin, Francis Bacon and KAWS, as well as the return of Wonder Women, Manchester After Hours, Glasgow International, Light Up Lancaster and more. And, thanks to our cultural round-up, you needn’t miss any of it. Get the very best events of the coming year into your diary, now.

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
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Image by Jonathan Schofield.
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portrait of Lorsung in a dark shirt with dark hair and dark round glasses
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We've got laughs and we've got leftfield on the live literature radar this month. Something for everyone, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

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Open air clubs, new festivals and long-awaited gigs. The North West's live music scene is heating up this spring. 

Classical Music in the North

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Laura Ellen Bacon, Into Being, 2025. Photo © India Hobson, courtesy Yorkshire Sculpture Park
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Willow weaving, textile collages, digital arts and ecology - all this and more in our exhibition top picks this month

Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
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Live scores, midnight movies and the latest from Wes Anderson are just some of our upcoming film highlights.