What's on North 2-9 Mar: Wonder Women

Each week The Skinny team hand-pick a selection of the best events from the North's cultural calendar to provide you with this 'ere 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 Leeds every Thursday morning.

Wonder Women 

Manchester celebrates International Women's Day (Wed 8 Mar) with feminist festival Wonder Women, the annual creative response to the city's legacy of badass radical feminism taking place 2-12 Mar. Spanning art, music, film, theatre and discussion, highlights include a pop-up cinema event at the People's History Museum and an all-female techno night at Texture. You can check out what we're most looking forward to with our top five roundup.

Elsewhere, in Liverpool The Fanny Collective present Pretty, an exhibition running 8-13 Mar exploring feminism at a time when gender politics are becoming more divided, Girl Gang Leeds welcome an all-female lineup for their Cool for Crafts Art Market, while The Brunswick in Leeds hosts a group exhibition celebrating femininity called She Will Need Her Sisterhood. You can also browse all International Women's Day events here.

Illustration: Jacky Sheridan

2017 Festival guide, spring's best events and more... New issue out now!

We're chuffed to bits with our new issue, which is out now and packed with everything from interviews with Paul Verhoeven and Grandaddy to a roundup of the best upcoming festivals and musings on our #packagingfree week. Go curl up with a copy just like this 'ere pooch. You can also find a digi version online here.

Islington Mill: "Don’t assume that this is all easy; it’s not."

Salford arts venue Islington Mill won its lengthy licensing dispute in February, but the fight is far from over. Like all independent spaces, it needs your support. We spoke to owner Bill Campbell and Verity Gardner from music programmers Fat Out to find out why the good news doesn't necessarily feel like a victory just yet...

Also this week:

SICK! Festival
Various venues, Manchester. Wed 8-Sat 25 Mar

Celebrating life, death and survival, SICK! Festival tackles the challenging but vital parts of daily life with a programme of theatre and arts events, including Jaamil Olawale Kosoko's #negrophobia (pictured), which examines the erotic fear associated with the black body, and Liz Aggiss's Slap and Tickle, a dark physical commentary on cultural mores and sexual taboos. Read more about our top five events here. Photo: Laura Giesdorf

The Cocktail Experience
Aspire, Leeds. Fri 3 Mar, 6pm

Celebrate the brightest of the Leeds bar scene with The Cocktail Experience, a boozy celebration playing host to 18 of the city's biggest bar brands. Following last year's sell-out debut, exhibitors for 2017 include The Alchemist (Loire Lady cocktail pictured), Pintura, Manahatta and Revolución de Cuba, all ready to quench that thirst with something spectacular.

How much of this is fiction.
FACT, Liverpool. Thu 2 Mar-Sun 21 May, 11am

In a very timely move, FACT explore what it means to live in a world increasingly governed by 'post-truth' politics, as a group of politically-inspired media artists use deception, tricks, hoaxes and hacks, to document the radical shift in the boundary between fiction and reality. Artwork: Maia Gusberti

Manchester Film Festival
Various venues, Manchester. Thu 2-Sun 5 Mar, times vary

Manchester Film Festival returns for its 2017 bash with a new strand of 'Rising Stars', which showcases emerging talent from in front of and behind the camera. Along with appearances from the likes of Timothy Spall, Karen Allen and Stef Dawson, you can also expect world premieres, experimental indies and live panel discussions. Check out the three films we're most looking forward to catching here.

Leeds International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair
The Tetley, Leeds. Sat 4-Sun 5 Mar, 10am

The longest-running artists' book fair outside of London, the International Contemporary Artists' Book Fair celebrates its 20th birthday this year, welcoming stalls from the likes of PagePaperStitch, Village Books, Wild Pansy Press (pictured) and more, along with creative workshops throughout the weekend from papersmith supremos GF Smith. Illustration: Emily Nash

Maray x Wreckfish
Camp and Furnace, Liverpool. Fri 3 Mar, 6pm

The small plates gods of Maray have teamed up with bistro Sticky Walnut (and its WIP sister Wreckfish) for a special collaboration menu at this Friday's Night Garden, Camp and Furnace's weekly event combining food, drink, art and performance. Entry's free, then you can simply pick and mix from innovative dishes including sea bream ceviche, goats' cheese arancini, beef shin with sweetcorn, coffee and pickled cherry and chocolate with honeycomb. GET. INVOLVED.