What's on North: May bank holiday weekend

Another bank holiday inches closer – though this time it'll be our last until August. Best make the most of it with our 10 top picks for Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool, featuring Leeds Feast, Liverpool Sound City, Dot to Dot and... Space Jam.

Feature by Jess Hardiman | 19 May 2016

Leeds Feast
Various venues, Leeds. Sat 28-Sun 29 May, 11am, free

Leeds Indie Food is back in full swing, bringing with it the return of Leeds Feast, one of the North’s favourite celebrations of street food, beer and art. The region’s street food elite are poised to fill your bellies (we’re talking Honest Crust, Ginger’s Comfort Emporium, Holy Crab, Mei Mei’s Street Cart and more), along with Hackney comfort food purveyors, Rita’s. Until then, though, you can check out what else to expect from the rest of the festival with our guide to the best things to do and see, including supper clubs, edible exhibitions and gin tastings.

Liverpool Sound City
Bramley-Moore Dock, Liverpool, Sat 28-Sun 29 May, 12pm

Lots of good stuff coming up at this year’s Liverpool Sound City, including big names like Young Fathers, Circa Waves, Sleaford Mods, The Coral, Pete Doherty, Hot Chip, 2ManyDJs, The Dandy Warhols, Mount Kimbie and even Paddy Considine, alongside local hero Bill Ryder-Jones, Glasgow’s Holy Esque (pictured), DIY trio False Advertising and many other Skinny favourites.

Photo: Ingrid Mur


Awesome Tapes from Africa
24 Kitchen Street, Liverpool. Sat 28 May, 7pm

Brooklyn native Brian Shimkovitz is the genius behind the Awesome Tapes project, which started life after he became hooked on Africa’s cassette culture when studying in Ghana. He’ll be heading our way for his Liverpool debut, armed with gems from his personal African cassette archive, which includes everything from highlife, fuji, benga, Tsonga disco, soukous, hip-hop, rhumba, ethio-soul, and a zillion other genres that you’ve never heard of but will no doubt love.

Chorlton Arts Festival
Various venues, Manchester. Until Sun 29 May, times vary

The bank holiday weekend marks the end of Chorlton Arts Festival, which bows out with a weekend of live music, DJs, celidhs, markets, comedy and vegan fairs. Catch Ren Harvieu and The Magic Numbers’ Romeo Stodart (Fri 27), Owiny Sigoma Band and Albert Bisaso Ssempeke (Sat 28), PINS (pictured), False Advertising and Mad Winter (Sun 29), before winding down at The Beagle with the official after party (Sun 29), which sees the EightySix DJs joined by seminal local label Akoustik Anarkhy for live sets from Laurie Hulme and Nick Ellis. In fact, read our guide to the five things you really can't miss and you'll be just grand.

Photo: Daniel Harris

The Garden Party: Part 2
Canal Mills, Leeds. Sun 29 May, 12pm

Bank holidays in Leeds have become practically synonymous with The Garden Party, a longstanding institution playing host to day-to-night bashes at some of the city’s favourite venues (which have previously included The Faversham and the Tetley). For the second installment of its 2016 season, TGP heads to a new venue of Canal Mills for the first time. To see May out, Part 2 features DJ Koze, Ame, Bicep, Mind Against, PBR Streetgang, Ryan Elliot and others, along with a full line-up of food and drink traders and art from &/Or Emporium.

Photo: Nick Bojdo

King Street Festival
King Street, Manchester. Sat 28-Mon 30 May, times vary

We know, it sounds like the kind of thing where you'd find Whistles dishing out a free shot of Prosecco for every cashmere jumpsuit bought – and among the participated venues listed is, er, Boots – but hear us out: King Street deserves a party, having become a major destination for shopping, drinking and dining (thanks to El Gato's retractable roof, if nothing else). To celebrate its promising future, the festival adds some down-to-earth fun to the affluence with outdoor BBQs, pop-up gardens, live music from jazz band Young Pilgrims (pictured) and others, lawn games, walking tours, and DJs including firm Manc favourite Greg Thorpe, along with all those inevitable discounts to help you pump some force into the economy. So track down the complimentary bubbles and raise a glass to what is essentially a very, very good thing.

Physical Fest
Various venues, Liverpool. Until Sat 28 May, times vary

The May bank holiday also marks the end of Physical Fest, the annual, international celebration of physical theatre from Tmesis Theatre. As the festival draws to a close you’ll be able to catch You Kissed Me (until Fri 27 May), a double bill of Oog and Cabaret from the Shadows (Fri 27), Stupid Women (Sat 28) and Grimm (until Sat 28 May).

Illustration: Caroline Dowsett

HomoElectric
Hidden, Manchester. Sat 28 May, 10pm

Manchester’s beloved queer night HomoElectric ups its already high stakes this bank holiday by roping in Berlin favourite Mr Ties (aka Francesco de Nittis), whose cult gay night Homopatik will be going head-to-head with residents Will Tramp and Jamie Bull for a double thwack of ‘post politics and post gender’ partying via the avenues of off-kilter disco, techno, house and more. Let’s see if Manchester can rival the venerable clubbing scene of the German capital… Might as well give it a go, eh?

Dot to Dot
Various venues, Manchester. Fri 27 May, 3pm

Fancy starting the bank holiday weekend with hour-upon-hour of live music? Multi-venue, multi-city festival Dot to Dot rolls into town once more with a localised jumble of rising names from the Northwest including Blooms, Cassie, Mums, Liines, The Bear Around Your Neck and Pines, alongside bigger, established types like Mystery Jets, The Temper Trap, Augustines (pictured), Spring King and Girl Friend.

Photo: Emily Wylde

Films at FACT
FACT Picturehouse, Liverpool

What would a bank holiday weekend be without a relaxing, nostalgic daytime flick? Lap it up on the big screen as FACT treats us to a showing of To Kill a Mockingbird (Sun 29 May), Robert Mulligan’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s seminal tale set in racially-charged 1930s Alabama. Either that, or return to the peak of your childhood with 90s classic, Space Jam (Sat 28 and Sun 29 May), to take a brief hiatus from all that millennial doom to believe that you truly can fly.