What's on near Club Academy
One of London’s most hyped bands of the last few years, Bar Italia are playing Band on the Wall in support of their latest album, Some Like It Hot.
From £19.45
Epic architecture, hidden green spaces and ideas that changed the world. Explore the rich history of achievement at The University of Manchester.
From £20.00
The Whitworth showcases one of contemporary art’s most unruly imaginations as 2024 Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas arrives with a major solo exhibition.
Free entry
Yuki Kihara reframes Pacific imagery through Fa’afafine voices, creating lush, critical artworks that unsettle long-standing colonial assumptions.
Free entry
The RNCM launches its second Inspirational Artists series, spotlighting a huge range of touring musicians and ensembles, each bringing something unique to the stage.
From £12.50
Explore the incredible history behind one of Britain’s grandest and most storied commercial buildings: Manchester’s Grade II listed Kimpton Clocktower Hotel.
From £25.00
The Modernist presents a body of acrylic landscapes by Salford-based artist Peter James Houghton, shaped by themes of societal decline, hiraeth and human isolation.
Free entry
Voka Gentle return to Manchester with a headline show in YES Basement, bringing new material that pushes their already elastic sound into darker, stranger territory.
From £14.50Where to go near Club Academy
Rarely-opened neo-Gothic gem that’s part of the University of Manchester.
The Martin Harris Centre is a performance space off Manchester’s Oxford Road
This 18-acre park opposite the Manchester Royal Infirmary provides a welcome patch of green in an otherwise densely populated and heavily used part of the city.
Brilliant venue for catching a touring band on the rise. The boringly titled Academy 3 or more interesting Hop and Grape, as it was once known, is a self contained…
Built in the late 19th centure, the Holy Name sites in the middle of the University of Manchester.
The Manchester Academy is a mid size, modern warehouse venue adjacent to the University of Manchester Students’ Union. It lacks any architectural merit and has always been a difficult place…
at the Museum
Manchester Museum’s cafe is run by the people behind award-winning cafe Teacup Kitchen. The menu features home-baked cakes, the finest loose leaf teas and breakfast, as well as a wide selection of mains and meals for kids.
Want Not Waste is a student-run, not-for-profit zero waste shop operating out of Academy 1 at the University of Manchester Students’ Union.
Celebrating its 200th year in 2024, The University of Manchester is the largest single-site university in the UK, and boasts come incredible cultural institutions, found on campus, across Manchester and…
Big Hands is the one-time haunt of legendary Manchester band Elbow; it’s shabby, loud and dark, with a jukebox and excellent roof terrace.
Kro Bar, Manchester is an independent pub and music venue housed (somewhat ironically) in the former Temperance Society building.
Culture Guides
Theatre across the North West splits between festive escape and sharp, urgent work exploring politics, power and resistance.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Manchester’s starting the new year with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.
This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
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.