Arts, Music & Events Preview, May 2011 (Part Two)

We’re now deep into festival season with Sounds From The Other City and FutureEverything (look out for our Steve Reich review in the next few days) already having passed us by. But the festivities, along with the weather, are just warming up; here’s what to look out for in the closing days of May.

Tonight (Thursday 19th) at 6pm is the launch of Chorlton Arts Festival (CAF) in Chorlton precinct, as artwork created in line with the {this way: UP} theme will be unveiled by special guest, Chorlton resident and CAF Patron, Damon Gough (aka Badly Drawn Boy). BREAD Art Collective have positioned the artistic contributions in unannounced locations through the town; above eye level to provoke shoegazers into a varied view. Amongst the art portrayed will be a preview of a project co-curated by Doodlebug and Alexandra Arts, which takes a lead from JR’s Inside Out socially cohesive guerrilla art by asking local schoolchildren to take and pose for portrait photographs while considering what the area's parks mean to them.

Friday 20th is the first day of action at Friends of Mine’s three-dayer in a Cheshire field (FOM Fest 2011), which boasts Walls, From The Kites of San Quentin, The Fall, Toro Y Moi, Jim Noir, Working For A Nuclear Free City, The Longcut, plus plenty more besides.

All the while Chorlton Arts Festival will be ongoing until the end of the month; best to check their listings to pick out a selection of the live music, spoken word, literature, DJs, comedy sketches, visual arts, drama and participatory improv.

Retro soul maestro Bill Withers is the subject of a night in homage to his recording career at Soup Kitchen on Sunday 22nd, featuring recent documentary Still Bill, live performances (not by the man himself, albeit) and DJs. More music follows on Monday 23rd in the form of Three Trapped Tigers at Night’n’Day Café; the avant garde noise merchants have been booked in to top a bill ahead of Tall Ships by the ever-progressive and ambitious promoters WotGodForgot. That is unless you’d prefer the alt-folk dabbling of Hey! Manchester of a Monday evening; in which case they’re offering Juliana Barwick’s solo choir dreamscapes at Kraak Gallery, with past Now Then Manchester interviewee Najia Bagi providing support.

One for environmental activists next: Kindling Trust has organised a get-together for otherwise disparate groups all striving for similar goals. The Bull’s Head pub on Thursday 26th.

And soon enough there’s another Bank Holiday weekend. Wet Play and Hoya:Hoya are vying for attention on Saturday 28th; they have Deep Space Orchestra at Kraak and Brainfeeder’s mind-melting Lorn at Roadhouse respectively.

The standout for Sunday 29th / Monday 30th is Eurocultured, nucleated along the New Wakefield Street bars and inclusive of another veritable multinational line-up. The headline-grabbers are Scando-techno sextet Slagsmalsklubben, Israel’s Balkan Beat Box and the effervescent performer David Thomas Broughton, but fail to explore at your peril; Mind On Fire, Doodlebug and Hoya:Hoya are amongst those flexing curative muscle, with Naomi Kashiwagi, Aardvarck and Vieka all confirmed. Not to mention the must-see live street art.

Monday 30th is also the day to catch another festival: Dot to Dot.

Words: Ian Pennington