All articles filed in Long Read

The brand spanking new skyscrapers at Deansgate Square are enormous. You can’t miss them; walking through Manchester it feels like all roads lead to these four glass towers. If you look down Mosley Street or Oldham Street, they’re looming at the end. Inside, it feels like you’re in a hotel lobby – lots of glass,…

Festival organisers across the UK must have watched this year’s launch of Abandon Normal Devices (AND) with a great deal of envy a fortnight ago. Despite the planned easing of Covid restrictions, many festivals have announced a second year of cancellations. Boomtown sold out in February but have now had to call the music festival…

Last Monday, my flatmate walked in from work looking stressed. “Twenty-two years and I woke up this morning and now I don’t even want to be a United fan”. He was visibly agitated: hoovering and tidying constantly while consuming as much commentary on the proposed European Super League as possible. The maintenance man who came round the following day to fix our ovens…

  In light of recent events, questions are being asked about who designs our urban public spaces, and which interests they serve. Following the Sarah Everard case, in which a police officer is charged with the kidnap and murder of a young woman who was walking home from a friend’s flat, the government announced a…

We all need time to turn off. Nevertheless, the problems of the present don’t come from nowhere. These spaces I walk through have pasts tied to the industrial revolution, empire, and exploitation, with much to tell us about our city and society today.

Over a decade of conflict has battered the Syrian arts and cultural scene that once flourished, but a Manchester-based charity still recognises the need to celebrate Syria.

The last few months have seen innumerable upheavals in the cultural sector. Culture was once centred on shared spaces: clubs, galleries, theatres, community buildings and city centres. Memories of such hustle and bustle now seem increasingly distant.

Passport: Back to Our Roots initiative was devised to support independent grassroots venues that are the lifeblood of the UK music scene.

Manchester International Festival (MIF) has occupied the city for 18 days every other summer since 2007. In seeking out Manchester’s creatives and hidden spaces, it has premiered up-and-coming artists and given them a global platform.