This self-proclaimed sin slide is one of the most exciting clubs the North West has to offer, its reputation travelling internationally. Located in an unhipstered industrial zone in the shadows of Strangeways prison, it’s sort of in the middle of no-where, and it makes the most of that fact by throwing some of the wildest parties around, club nights regularly running until unmentionable o’clock.

It’s the kind of venue where the crowd arrives early and actually dances – none of that influencer crap. Stomp, sing, square dance if you really want to, the venue’s Funktion-One sound system has got you covered.

The techno-aficionados behind Hidden have had resounding success with this Salford club. A reliably authentic raver haven is a previously neglected textile mill, rejuvenated with the healing vibrations of heavy bass. Every weekend in the wee hours happy partygoers spill out into the barren industrial surrounds, all danced out with smiles aplenty.

Having served two summers of temporary parties, Progress Centre has been reinvented into a new permanent outdoor club in central Manchester, which is hosting a string of massive parties this summer.

Though the bar has been around for a while, and during the day Soup is a decent place to go to for a Northern Quarter, communal-style lunch, the basement plays hosts to some excellent club nights. As a room, it’s a little bit dingy, but it more than comes to life when there are 150 people stuffed inside.

Hailed as something of a cry back ‘to the way the Northern Quarter used to be’, The Peer Hat is Old English styled and yet determinedly celebrates current grassroots musicians in its basement gig room and club space.

The apple in Now Wave’s eye, YES is a music venue located in a former auctioneers house on Charles Street. It boasts four floors for live music and DJ’s, two food outlets, plus an outdoor roof terrace.

There aren’t many venues in Greater Manchester that feel so creatively alive as this place. Operating under a steadfast belief in the DIY maxim, Islington Mill is fiercely independent, supportive to artists of various disciplines, and creative in every respect.

Stage & Radio is probably the most important venue in Manchester nightlife right now. It’s tucked away at the end of Port Street, next to Port Street Tavern, far from the main Ibiza-style Stevenson Square strip, and attracts a cutting edge crowd of next year’s main players when it comes to DJing, promoting and all things clubland.

Covering no less than three floors head in on the ground floor and pick up a drink before choosing between the sweaty upstairs dancefloor and the cosy basement. The cocktail list reads like an old-school sweet shop and there’s plenty of craft beers if you’ve more of a taste for grapefruit than bubblegum.