Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

UnShut Festival 2020

Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor

Book now

UnShut Festival

2-4 July 2020

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

Book now
UnShut Festival
Image courtesy of UnShut Festival.
Book now

Experience UnShut Festival online, on the streets or by post this July.

Taking place over 3 days, UnShut Festival 2020 brings experimental and radical performance work. And while we’re upset that ordinary festival fun is out of bounds, we think that UnShut Festival offers a brilliant alternative, and offers a creative response to the situation we find ourselves in right now.

Working with live artists to explore the world we’re living in, and the ways that we connect, socialise and interact, the festival aims to investigate, challenge and test the boundaries of contemporary performance.

An online celebration of experimental work, there will be 12 performances. Work will include building a theatre from scratch, a world-wide street clean, a revolution by postcard and an intimate performance in Animal Crossing.

Bringing durational performance, intimate one-to-one performances on Zoom, audio performance, a series of family-friendly tiny installations hidden across Sheffield city centre and a special online Q and A where you can join the artists in discussion, we think UnShut offers connection, creativity and community at such a challenging time for artists and audiences.

While you’re here…be sure to check out our full (and frequently updated) guide to the best online things to do in Manchester and the North.

Where to go near UnShut Festival 2020

Manchester
Restaurant
Dahlia Stereo

Dahlia Stereo is a Latin American-inspired open-fire kitchen and bar off the Northern Quarter’s Stevenson Square, with a pitch perfect soundsystem.

Balance Taproom
Manchester
Restaurant
Balance Taproom

Manchester has a glut of taprooms, and Balance Brewing’s is far and away the best. Drinks, decor, service – all a cut above.

Richard Hards ‘Strangeways’
Manchester
Gallery
Moon Grove

A Georgian front room in Rusholme houses Moon Grove, an independent gallery with an unusually ambitious international programme.

In Focus: Chinese Contemporary Art.
Manchester
Gallery
New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery

New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery opened in 2016, providing a permanent space to showcase the University of Salford Art Collection within the New Adelphi School of Arts and Media.

Cumbria
Restaurant
1863 Restaurant

1863 offers a seven-course Lake District tasting menu that overdelivers at every turn. Cumbrian ingredients, clever ideas and classical cooking techniques.

City Centre
Bar or Pub
Schofield’s Bar

Schofield’s could be Manchester’s most grown-up bar. Very precise drinks in an upmarket city centre venue. It’s not cheap, hey, but true class costs.

Manchester
Restaurant
Sampa

Sampa’s underground space is the perfect place to learn about both her new mind-expanding dishes and vintage sherries, reimagined for the late 2020s.

Northern Quarter
Restaurant
Sicilian NQ

Busy backstreet Sicilian restaurant in the Northern Quarter, serving up traditional dishes with well-executed vegan versions that more than match up.

See all places

What's on: Theatre

Encounter Festival in Preston
FestivalsLancashire
Encounter Festival in Preston

Preston comes alive with outdoor theatre, live music and family-friendly creativity in one of the North West’s most joyful festivals.

Free entry
Mrs Dalloway at HOME
–
TheatreManchester
Mrs Dalloway at HOME

Jen Heyes and Kit Green breathe thrilling new life into Virginia Woolf’s modernist classic with an inventive theatrical reimagining.

From £16.20
Woodhill at Lowry
–
TheatreSalford
Woodhill at Lowry

LUNG turns real testimony into an unflinching piece of theatre about loss, accountability and the crisis facing Britain’s prisons.

From £13.00

Culture Guides

Woodhill by LUNG Theatre.
Theatre

Contemporary performance, verbatim theatre, dark comedy and a bold vision of Gaza - an eclectic mix for the start of autumn.

Matt Spratt.
Music

Aphex Twin-endorsed electronica, an eight-hour organ marathon and the most exciting band in Ireland's current folk revival all feature this month.

Food and Drink in the North

Step into autumn safe in the knowledge that you have the North's very best mid-September guide to food and drink in Manchester and beyond.

Exhibitions

Our latest exhibition picks include a lost recording of the Strangeways protest, Manchester's first sound art festival, and queer archives revisited.

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.

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.

See all guides