Guides
What's on
Where to go
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Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Abandon Normal Devices

Polly Checkland Harding

Visit now

Abandon Normal Devices

Grizedale Forest, Cumbria

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Free
Photo of children sitting on tree stumps wearing headgear
Image courtesy of Abandon Normal Devices.
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Abandon Normal Devices – “a dynamic festival of ground-breaking art, digital culture and new cinema” – is the UK’s only roaming digital festival, taking place at a different location every two years. It attracts internationally-renowned artists to work in collaboration with academics and anarchists on innovative new projects.

Where to go near Abandon Normal Devices

Brantwood, image courtesy of venue
Cumbria
Museum
Brantwood

The Lake District home of the radical social and cultural thinker, John Ruskin.

Cumbria
Gallery
Grizedale Arts

Grizedale Arts continues to explore the role of art in society from its award winning eco-base near Coniston.

Cumbria
Museum
Hill Top

Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top in 1905 with the proceeds from her first book.

LawsonParkFarm, courtesy of venue
Cumbria
Bed & Breakfast
Lawson Park Farm Cottage

Award-winning self-catering holiday accommodation that is not only beautiful but also supports the pioneering work of Grizedale Arts.

Cumbria
Museum
The Ruskin Museum

The Ruskin Museum tells the story of Coniston in Cumbria – a place of copper mines and slate quarries, Swallows & Amazons country where Beatrix Potter owned farms and Stone Age fell walkers once dwelled.

Cumbria
Restaurant
Gilpin Spice

Gilpin Spice is the two AA Rosettes Asian restaurant at the stunning Gilpin Hotel in the Lake District.

Cumbria
Bar or Pub
Baha

Baha is a stylish upmarket restaurant with a Pacific Rim-inspired menu, based in Bowness-In-Windermere in the Lake District.

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What's on: Exhibitions

Culture Guides

A busy image created using generative AI. The image depicts a man at the centre with grey hair and rosy cheeks, surrounding him are fairies that appear to be created in his own image with multiple limbs and unique bodily proportions. Around them are hundreds of vials, microscopes and dated scientific equipment.
Exhibitions

Across Manchester and Salford, exhibitions are thinking hard about how things are made – and how materials carry stories.

Theatre

Closer, riskier, more immediate. Our small-scale theatre picks stretch from unsettling fables about nationhood to the inner workings of a mind trying to hold itself together.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Fatoumata Diawara by Alun Be.
Music

This month’s live music picks move between ambitious new work, grassroots celebrations and a few memorable settings.

Food and Drink in the North

Spring has arrived, bringing with it al fresco dining and a rush of high-profile food and drink-related events in Manchester.

Emily Lloyd-Saini as Grace in Space and Harrie Hayes as Lieutenant Strong in Horrible Science
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

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