What's On Northwest 18-25 Feb: Kinofilm Festival

Each week The Skinny team hand pick a selection of the best events from the Northwest cultural calendar to provide you with this here top ten guide to the most exciting goings on for the week ahead. From gigs, plays, and exhibitions, to spoken word, pop-up foodie events, and one-off film screenings, we give you the insider's guide to things to do in Liverpool, Manchester and beyond every Thursday morning.

Kinofilm Festival
Various venues, Manchester. Mon 22-Sun 28 Feb, times vary

Kinofilm Festival returns for its 13th bash, celebrating groundbreaking new short films and animation from across the globe. The week-long programme includes animation showcases (Konstantin Bronzit's We Can't Live Without Cosmos pictured above), comedy shorts, international student shorts and more, plus other supporting events including a community development filmmaking workshop on Mon 22 Feb, exploring how to succeed in participatory filmmaking.

Beginnings Two
Camp and Furnace, Liverpool. Fri 19 Feb, 10pm

Abandon Silence follow Beginnings One, their first event for 2016 which was graced by the likes of Joy Orbison and Hunee, with – absolutely no prizes for guessing here – Beginnings Two. This time, they're roping in glitchy electronica behemoths Mount Kimbie (pictured) as headliners, alongside Young Marco, Willow, Andrew Hill, Harry Sheehan and Owain Gwyn also behind the decks.

Photo: Gemma Burke

Now Wave's 'Now' All Dayer
The White Hotel, Salford. Sat 20 Feb, 4pm

Setting up camp in one of Salford's favourite venues, Now Wave are hosting an all-dayer featuring some of their hotly tipped new artists for 2016. As you'd expect from the dependable promoters, the lineup's looking suitably strong, with lo-fi pop outfit Childhood (pictured), London's Real Lies, grungy guitar-pop gang The Big Moon, NYC trio Show Me the Body and soulful country group Whitney announced so far. They'll be followed by DJs playing until late.

Photo: Richard Ferguson

Will Varley
Buyers Club, Liverpool. Fri 19 Feb, 7.30pm

From Brixton-born Will Varley you can expect untainted folk, written simply and honestly at his kitchen table, and a sound that's been winning critical acclaim since his early days touring England's South coast on foot. Such high praise means he's used to selling out around these parts, as he did in Manchester last weekend, but luckily you can still get a ticket for his upcoming Liverpool gig in support of his most recent release, Postcards from Ursa Minor.

ADVERTISEMENT | The Indie Wedding Fair
Ashton Hall Equestrian Centre, Sale. Sat 9 Apr, 10.30am

The Indie Wedding Fair is full of creative, style-savvy and bespoke beauties supplying Manchester's marrying sorts, going the extra mile to make your day extra awesome. You'll find everything from flower growers, florists, funky transport, musicians and props to PA hire, photographers, videographers, foodies, stylists, accessories, planners and crafty creatives of all description, together in beautiful giant tipis showcasing how you can create your wedding, just as you like it.

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Berlin
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. Thu 18 Feb-Fri 3 Jun, times vary

Four years in the making, Berlin is a new exhibition from We Are Willow (aka artist and musician Chris Butler and photographer Will Grundy), whose project captures the rhythm of the city through photography and an album of music, tapping into themes of isolation, voyeurism, escape and disorientation. Things kick off on Thu 18 Feb as part of the Whitworth's free Thursday Lates programme, featuring a live performance of the album and projections.

Blind Date
The Royal Standard, Liverpool. Fri 19-Sun 28 Feb, times vary

At the beginning of 2016, three artists made a WLTM call-out for creative collaborators, for an exhibition by artist-led organisation (it's all) Tropical. Following a six-week labour of love, they're ready to unveil the fruits of their artistic partnerships, with exhibiting artists including Millington | Marrior, Lindsey Mendick, Josef Zachary Shanley Jackson, Caitlin Merrett King, Alfie Strong and Uma Breakdown.

Photo L-R: Previous work by Alfie Strong, Lindsey Mendick and Josef Zachary Shanley Jackson

Ex-Easter Island Head: Large Electric Ensemble
Islington Mill, Salford. Sat 20 Feb, 7pm

As part of the Samarbeta residency at Islington Mill, Liverpool trio Ex-Easter Island Head have spent two weeks developing the Large Electric Ensemble, harnessing the potential of massed amplified strings and percussion to culminate in a performance this weekend. After their captivating performance at last year's Sounds from the Other City festival with players from the BBC Philharmonic, we reckon you're in for some spellbinding stuff.

LIPA Short Play Festival
Buyers Club, Liverpool. Sat 20-Sun 21 Feb, 7pm

Witness some of Liverpool's rising theatrical talent with the LIPA Short Play Festival, where all plays are directed, performed and for the most part written by students from all years at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. With a focus on creativity and collaboration, plays to catch include Julian Karenga's All the Tiny Things You Left Behind, Matthew Bromwich's Manifesto, and Horizon (pictured), which features a bunch of feminist sword-wielding pirates.

So Flute 4th Birthday
First Chop Brewing Arm, Salford. Sat 20 Feb, 11pm

Following a brief hiatus at the end of last year, the So Flute boys return just in time for their 4th birthday. To help them celebrate, they've enlisted Red Greg (Ebonite/You're a Melody) to headline in the party-perfect, 250-capacity setting of First Chop, where he'll be joined by all the So Flute residents (pictured) to commandeer the custom-built sound system. Go on, get down and buy 'em a pint of AVA.

2053: A Living Museum
Tate Liverpool. Sat 20-Sun 21 Feb, 10am

You may remember Tate Liverpool's exhibition, An Imagined Museum, which closed last weekend. Well, it's returning – but not as you know it. Instead, you'll see that each artwork has been removed and replaced by a person or group, who will remember the piece through dance, song or spoken word to express the impact and values that art brings into our lives.

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