alternative guide to Salford and Manchester

On the first Sunday in May each year, Chapel Street, where central Manchester and Salford meet, comes alive with art, music and DIY shows at the Sounds from the Other City festival. It’s a vibrant public celebration of the “community spirit and collaboration” that co-director Emma Thompson says underpins much of the region’s alternative culture.

“Collaboration is central to what we do, to Greater Manchester as a city,” says Thompson. “People come together, and it crosses genres and art forms. Sounds from the Other City wouldn’t be turning 20 next year if it weren’t for that. The fees we offer aren’t huge but people really get behind it, they do it for the good of it.”

Thompson is clear about the challenges faced by those who make experimental art: “It’s precarious. It feels unstable.” Costs are high, affordable space is scarce, funding is “very competitive”. Such forces are reshaping the creative landscape, literally. Its quirkier, arty hangouts are still more in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, but mostly generic bars and restaurants. Left-field culture is moving to the fringes of the city – or into Salford.

For the past 18 months, the band WH Lung has been based in Salford’s Islington Mill, an artist-maker studio complex. Keyboard player Tom Sharkett says it’s inspiring to be surrounded by people “doing cool things for the right reasons” at a time when you’d have to be “mad” in many ways to pursue a career in music and art.

Opened in 2000, Islington Mill has recently expanded into new buildings, including a nearby trading estate. “The Mill feels like it has taken on a new life. It feels strong,” says Sharkett. This is also true of the creative energy of Manchester and Salford in general. There are many obstacles, but the desire to make great art lives on.

Music and nightlife

Manchester music is arguably as vibrant right now as it has ever been post-punk – from Anz to Space Afrika, Blackhaine to Sockethead, Mandy, Indiana and Michael J Blood. Much of that is due to the nurturing influence of The White Hotel, a former garage next to Strangeways prison. In contrast to the gentrification of today’s Manchester, this singular entity (grim location, great sound, art school ethos, all-night rave energy) created a space for new music to grow. “It’s a really important space,” says Thompson.

In the North Quarter, but in a similar creative territory, a venue for clubs and gigs, Naraith creates that you only need a basement, a red light and, as well as a feeling, a program that challenges its audience.

Other city center venues that defy convention include punk and indie haven the Star & Garter, Aatma, the Peer Hat and Peste (see Drinks section below). But more interesting things happen just outside the center, often in unexpected places.

Two of Manchester’s essential community centers – the Old Abbey Taphouse, on a science park in Hulme, south of the city centre; and DBA on Cheetham Hill to the north – are historic pubs that now double as club and music venues. “Stand outside the DBA,” says Sharkett, of this traditional Victorian bulb, “you wouldn’t have a clue what’s going on in there.” He once accepted ex-DJs from Glasgow Optimo: “They’ve all seen it, but they really liked it.”

In these rather obscure corners, music is encouraged to be strange: at the Hidden storefront; Salford’s Eagle Inn; the musical out there N/OM; the Yard; and Partisan at Islington Mill. Affordable, inclusive and home to a “huge array” of LGBTQ+ events, the Partisan group is one of the city’s most exciting venues, according to Thompson. “It is a glorious place.”

Arts and culture

At 24 years old, Salford’s Islington Mill remains an essential creative hub. Its public events are directed by Partisan, which hosts club nights, exhibitions, discussion groups and creative workshops, and the “radioactive queer bar” Mirage. This bar-gallery space hosts experimental art, performance and music nights, from outfits including Kunstlicker and Short Supply.

Also in Salford, artists’ studio space Paradise Works regularly hosts exhibitions (entry by appointment), as does Oceans Apart, a contemporary painting gallery at OA Studios (by appointment, mainly at weekends).

In central Manchester, visitors might see pop-up exhibitions in multi-use spaces such as Studio Bee. HappeningInMCR hosts a “micro-gallery” at the alternative shopping emporium Affleck’s Palace, and the lobby of the Great Northern Warehouse leisure complex (which already houses a collection of artist Stanley Chow’s illustrations) will soon feature work from 30 creatives based at the GRIT Studios site . New MCR space.

For more established contemporary art there is the Gort Castle Gallery, which is currently celebrating its 40th anniversary, and ESEA Contemporary, which exhibits heritage work from east and south-east Asia. Jane Jin Kaisen’s current Halmang exhibition explores themes inspired by the female seafood divers of Jeju island in South Korea.

Book lovers in the Northern Quarter can explore the LGBTQ+ Queer Lit bookstore, or Anywhere Out Of the World, which focuses on philosophy and poetry – and hosts thought-provoking musical events on the upper floor. Nearby, Village Books is a feast of periodicals and pop-culture tomes with a neat basement exhibition space.

Drink

Fancy a different drink? You are in the right cities. Schofield’s (currently number one in the UK’s 50 Best Cocktail Bars list) has exceptional cocktails; natural wine by CURB and Flawd; and incredible beer at Port Street Beer House, the Marble Arch or Marble Market Tavern. Further off the beaten track, the trading estate behind Manchester Piccadilly Station (known as the Beermuda Triangle by resident brewery Sureshot) has taprooms from Track, Cloudwater and mixed fermentation explorers, Balance Brewing & Bleding.

Need some cultural inspiration with your pint? In Salford, the Kings Arms is a real ale pub and theatre; TÁ is a student-friendly complex of bars, gig venues, DJs and pizza; and there is an underground record store, Eastern Bloc. At night, the latter morphs into a late night bar for techno larks. Do you prefer guitars? Head to Oldham Street Gullivers pubs and music venues, the Castle Hotel and Night & Day coffee bar, which recently settled its noise complaint issues with Manchester city council.

Newer venues include the Peer Hat, a wonderfully ramshackle boho pub and basement venue devoted to fringe scenes. It’s an all-ages haven from the brighter, more commercial aspects of the Northern Quarter – somewhere, says Thompson, where promoters can put on weird, noisy stuff. “It’s intimate enough that you can have 20 people and it feels great. You can try it. You need that.”

A little way north on the edge of Ancoats, there is another twist White Hotel O! Peste Destroyed is a handsome (ecclesiastical chic) ​​styled bar, record and book store focused on head extension work, with exhibitions and art installations in the basement. On Fridays, DJ Conor Thomas leads drinkers on ear-opening journeys to downtime electronics, frazzled pop and everything in between. A1 cocktails served by friendly bar staff complete this gem of a bar.

Food

The food scene in Manchester is growing at an amazing pace, with distinctive independents often setting the pace. The best way still is to spend £5.50 on a return from Go Falafel in the Northern Quarter. Nearby Asmara Bella, a cosy, laid-back Eritrean and Ethiopian bistro, has half the meat-free menu for vegans and vegetarians, as does Piccadilly’s Bundobust, with its Gujarati sharing plates.

Idle Hands has you covered for coffee and brunch. Pollen baking cafes are also good. Across town, Grub, hidden in an old light industrial unit, is a creative bar and event space (home, for example, to the Culplex cinema and classes from Art on Float) and hosts street food traders in its recycled beer garden, upgraded.

For something more refined, Another Hand on Deansgate Mews offers stellar plates of cider-roasted cabbage, smoked mussels and pancetta cream, or butterbean. cacio and pepe. At the nearby Exhibition, there is food from three different kitchens, including Baratxuri, a strong tribute to the Basque Country.

Higher Ground is arguably the most unique dining experience in Manchester. Using heritage and rare breed ingredients from small producers (including Higher Ground’s partner, Cheshire market garden Cinderwood), chef Joe Otway creates dishes – charcoal-roasted pork, yellow peas and sprouting cabbage, or leeks with peas smoked cod and thyme – a, Although they are simple in outline, they are generous, surprising and intense flavor.

Wait

Set around an impressive five-floor atrium within the Ducie Street Warehouse, Native Manchester’s 162 aparthotel rooms are modestly comfortable spaces. The aesthetic appeal (post-industrial via Copenhagen) continues into the yellow public areas on the ground floor. DJs soundtrack the weekend and spaces host events from film screenings to pop-up vintage sales. Doubles from £100 B&B.

Also convenient to the North Quarter, Cow Hollow is a stylish, 16-bed boutique bolthole. Clever use is made of the building’s 19th century industrial heritage, with ironwork and winding equipment incorporated as features. Its small bar represents the glamorous Rimini or Ibiza Town. Doubles from £99 B&B.

Sounds From The Other City will take place on May 5tickets £40 plus booking fee