SCENE Festival

Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor

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SCENE Festival

HOME Manchester, Manchester YES, Manchester Aviva Studios, Manchester and other venues...
16-22 August 2024

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

Queer as Folk - SCENE - City Co
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SCENE is a brand new LGBTQ+ film and television festival coming to Manchester this August. The weeklong festival is hosted at venues across the city, including HOME, Aviva Studios, People’s History Museum, New Century and the Gay Village, and promises a diverse array of screenings, special guests, parties and panels as it celebrates queer stories on screen, with a local twist.

With everything from outrageous cult films to radical documentaries, tender drama and raucous comedy, SCENE is designed to extend the spirit of Manchester Pride Festival, and showcase the variety and magic of LGBTQ+ film and TV.

Opening night is reserved to commemorate the 25th anniversary of influential drama Queer as Folk with a celebration featuring a panel and after-party. The series spotlighted Manchester’s Canal Street, and there will be appearances from writer Russell T Davies, executive producer Nicola Shindler, and actress Denise Black, amongst others, who will discuss the series and its relationship to the city.

Opening night is reserved to commemorate the 25th anniversary of influential drama Queer as Folk with a celebration featuring a panel and after-party.

Audiences can also look forward to a Q&A screening of BBC hit drama, Lost Boys & Fairies, made by Leeds-based production company Duck Soup Films, writer Daf James and star of the series Sion Daniel Young. Other guests include Emmy Award nominee and longtime activist David Weissman, who will discuss his seminal documentaries about 70s San Francisco, and filmmaker Erica Rose who will be in attendance for a Q&A following The Lesbian Bar Project: FLINTA, at Vanilla, Manchester’s “last lesbian bar”.

Festival partner HOME delivers a curated season dedicated to iconic filmmaker John Waters with screenings of cult movies Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble accompanied by a Saturday night party dubbed “The Filthiest Carnival Alive” which will see raucous drag queens, circus performers, DJs, and side stalls inspired by the films of “The Pope of Trash”.

We Were Here Castro Street – David Weismann – SCENE

While at People’s History Museum there’s a chance to see Striking With Pride: United at the Coalface — a new documentary exploring the unlikely alliance forged between the gay men and lesbians of London, and the striking miners of South Wales, between the 1984 and 1985 London Prides.

Head of Events at CityCo (producers of SCENE Festival), Gary Williams says, “SCENE promises a week of solidarity, diversity, and enjoyment. LGBTQIA+ representation on screen allows us to share our stories, break down barriers, and grow our community.”

To help make the festival accessible for everybody, all events are priced at £15 or under with many being £5 or free including a free outdoor screen on FirstStreet. Ticket profits will be donated to Manchester Pride Charity and ticket partner Skiddle will also donate the booking fee for any events booked through their site.

Accessibility

  • British Sign Language
  • Captioned

What's on at HOME Manchester

TESS at HOME: A woman holds four planks over her head, watched on by three women.
DanceManchester
Tess at HOME

A bold, breathtaking fusion of circus and storytelling, Ockham’s Razor transform Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles into a visceral, visually stunning spectacle.

From £21.20
Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Until
CinemaManchester
Wes World at HOME

Take a trip back into the world of Wes Anderson this May as HOME present a series of the acclaimed auteur’s most beloved films alongside The Phoenician Scheme.

From £7.95

Where to go near SCENE Festival

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

The Ritz Manchester live music venue
Manchester
Music venue
The Ritz

The Ritz was originally a dance hall, built in 1928, has hosted The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and The Smiths and is still going strong as a gig venue now.

Homeground
Manchester
Event venue
Homeground

Homeground is HOME’s brand new outdoor venue, providing an open-air space for theatre, food, film, music, comedy and more.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Burgess Cafe Bar
at IABF

Small but perfectly-formed café – which also serves as the in-house bookstore, stocking all manner of Burgess-related works, along with recordings of his music. It’s a welcoming space, with huge glass windows making for a bright, welcoming atmosphere.

Rain Bar pub in Manchester
City Centre
Bar or Pub
Rain Bar

This huge three-floor pub, formerly a Victorian warehouse, then an umbrella factory (hence the name), has one of the city centre’s largest beer gardens. The two-tier terrace overlooks the Rochdale canal and what used to be the back of the Hacienda, providing an unusual, historic view of the city.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally patriotic name The Ancient Britain.

Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
Castlefield
Gallery
Castlefield Gallery

The influential Castlefield Gallery sits at the edge of Manchester’s exciting Castlefield district, an ideal home for thought-provoking contemporary art.

What's on: Cinema

Barbara Dane
CinemaManchester
Kinofilm/ Soul on Sunday at Nia Centre

Kinofilm present a special screening of documentary The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane as part of Soul on Sunday an all-day event celebrating Northern Soul at the Nia Centre.

From £8.00
Three men sit next to each other. One's head is bandaged, one holds a torch and one wears a sleepmask.
Until
CinemaManchester
Wes World at HOME

Take a trip back into the world of Wes Anderson this May as HOME present a series of the acclaimed auteur’s most beloved films alongside The Phoenician Scheme.

From £7.95
Grease outdoor cinema
Cinema
Outdoor Cinema at Tatton Park

There’s movies under the stars again at Tatton Park this summer as the open air cinema returns for the August Bank Holiday Weekend.

From £14.99

Culture Guides

A young boy with a white sash around his left arm cries.
Cinema in the North

Outdoor cinema announcements, a major retrospective at HOME, and the best of indie cinema.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

Experimental performance, thought-provoking new writing and our picks of Manchester International Festival - here’s what’s taking centre stage this summer.

Isabel Galleymore in conversation
Literature Events in the North

There's a lot of experimentation going on in our Literature guide, from poets playing with form to short story writers looking long.

Music in the North

Gigs are coming in hot this spring – from long-awaited returns to one-off happenings you’ll blink and miss if you're not careful.

Experience a unique deep listening art installation inviting audiences to lay down and be bathed in sound and light.
Exhibitions in the North

From city-wide art festivals to open-air sculptural installations, we have exhibitions from all around the North, both indoors and out.