Épicerie Ludo: Pancakes and Presents

Situated amidst the Beech Road boutiques, Épicerie Ludo is now looking forward to the new year – its second full year as a focal point of Chorlton’s specialist food market.

Under the dedicated management of owner Ludovic Piot (Ludo for short), the ever-helpful staff offer a personal touch reminiscent of a bygone era before supermarket delis.

Ludo, as a keen advocate of local produce and quality foods, also stocks a range of regional specialities, including Marble and Red Willow bottled ales, jams and chutneys such as Chorlton Honey, a range of cheeses, fresh bread, and spiced saucisson (including wild boar and ostrich varieties).

As a self-proclaimed ‘Francunian’, Ludo’s other products are sourced from his native France, creating just the right mix from both sides of the Channel.

Today Ludo is preparing for Shrove Tuesday with a selection of sweet syrups and sugary treats. It’s no secret that the French know how to make their crêpes, so Ludo is well schooled in which products will linger longest on the taste buds before Lent. They also remain open after many food traders have closed for the day, so can cater for your late dash for lemon juice or jams.

There are also truffles, boxes of chocolates, spirits and wines – perfect for your fast approaching Valentine’s Day gifts. For a quirky alternative there are more thoughtful gift ideas, including the ‘You Are My Cup Of Tea’ teabags for tea lovers, provided by Ludo’s trusted supplier, The Tea Shed.

Épicerie Ludo can be found online here, but be sure to pay them a visit at 46 Beech Road, Chorlton, M21 9EG. Opening times are 10am-9pm Monday to Wednesday, 10am-10pm Thursday to Saturday, and 10am-8pm on Sunday.

Preview: Inspector Norse & The Knitted Autopsy

A woolly jumper sported by a character in a TV series seems a rather unlikely source of inspiration for a stage play in the UK but that's exactly where the idea came from for the Manchester-based Lip Service Theatre Company's latest dramatic endeavour - Inspector Norse.

Billed as a self-assembly Swedish crime thriller, the seeds for this new play - to be taken on tour around the UK early next year - were sewn during an episode of Danish series The Killing. The two members of the theatre group, Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding, found themselves very taken with the Faroe sweater worn by lead detective Sarah Lund and started pondering the idea of a production with a knitted set.

As the story goes so far - and the plot is still under discussion so nothing is set in stone as yet - a former pop star takes herself off into the Swedish countryside to escape the trappings of celebrity life and becomes a bit of a recluse, living in a house where absolutely everything is knitted, right down to the tiles on the roof. There she stays in peace and quiet until one day she discovers a body in the woods and has to call in a female detective and her male sidekick to come and solve the murder.

"We thought, if there's going to be a body, perhaps it could be knitted," Maggie says. "We could do the first-ever knitted autopsy. I started doing research into knitted body parts and found that there are lots of knitted intestines. Someone even knitted a digestive system - apparently, it's really common for medical students to knit their own body parts to help them learn."

Always keen to include the local community in their work, Maggie and Sue decided to set up a knitting group at the Tea Hive in Chorlton so people could contribute to the set, making leaves, icicles and other props. "I feel like we're tapping into a very rich theme," Maggie remarks, adding that she had no idea just how popular knitting had become. "We keep getting leaves shoved under our door and we don't know who they're from. It's quite sweet, really."

And it's not just Manchester's knitting finest helping the show go on - one woman in Brighton has volunteered to knit the Faroe jumper for the lead detective, while someone in the Cotswolds has been truly inspired and is knitting a coffee pot that pours knitted coffee.

"What's really nice is that women are coming with their daughters and they're learning to knit. I'm not a knitter and I've had a go and it wasn't a complete disaster," Maggie adds.

The play also looks set to have a lasting effect on the Manchester craft scene, with the Tea Hive knitting group likely to grow and continue, long after the curtain falls on Inspector Norse. A community choir - which featured in a previous Lip Service production, Desperate to be Doris - has also picked up its knitting needles and sent in a leaf or two.

Knitting aside, it certainly sounds as though Maggie and Sue's quirky sense of humour - for which the double act is renowned - will be in full force for Inspector Norse. Plans are apparently being kicked around to introduce a delinquent moose into proceedings, stumbling about drunk on fermented apples. As Maggie says, however, they're still writing at the moment so it might all change completely. "Between now and October 15th - when rehearsals start - anything could happen," she predicts.

Words: Sarah Adie
Image #1: courtesy of Lip Service Theatre
Image #2: Zion Arts Centre

Inspector Norse opens on 15th January 2013 in Bristol, before heading to Oldham Coliseum and the Lowry at Easter. More information can be found on the Lip Service Theatre website.

The knitting group meets fortnightly at Tea Hive Cafe in Chorlton with the next scheduled for Wednesday 1 August.

Chorlton Arts Festival 2012

Chorlton Arts Festival launched on Thursday 17th May and if you haven’t yet attended an affiliated show then you’ll have missed the likes of Stuart McCallum, The Tourists, Jesca Hoop and the preview night for Liz West’s curious Trolleys exhibition, as well as promotions by Manky Poets, Chorlton Film Institute and Playback Theatre. But there’s plenty more to follow during its second week, as the festival director Philip Hannaway describes.

Now Then: Last year Badly Drawn Boy opened the festival from the precinct balcony overpass; are there any plans for similarly inventive spectacles?

Philip Hannaway: Well we launched this year with secret performances from Alan Cochrane and John Bishop, which was pretty special. Coming up this Sunday [27 May] we have an outdoor performance on [Chorlton] Green complete with grand piano. There also are a few surprises over the Chorlton Weekender so keep a look out on the streets! You should also look out for the work of our Digital Arts Collective; there will be happenings all over Chorlton as the festival comes to a close.

Badly Drawn Boy

NT: One of the more complex multi-arts shows was the gig featuring Swimming, Dallas Simpson, headphones, video links and a detached audience at St Ninian’s Church – can you explain how this worked?

PH: This was a really amazing night. The band actually performed in the Church Hall away from the audience who were in the main church. We watched video of them performing live in the other room. Dallas Simpson (a sound artist) moved around the room and we pick up through our earphones what he is listening to. He used all kinds of tubes and equipment to pick up various sounds of the band. It was a totally unique event and a first headphone only gig in Chorlton. If you had walked into the church there would have been complete silence. It sounded amazing.

NT: The festival is also about highlighting the local arts and music in the area and many of these shows will be free entry. For those spoiled for choice, could you personally pick out and recommend any of those to attend?

PH: There have been so many great events in the community this year and in the last few days of the festival there is even more to look forward to. I’d make sure you check out our street art exhibition by local artist Trafford Parsons – you’ll find his work on shop shutters around Chorlton. Perfect for a stroll in the evening. There’s also our visual arts exhibitions in Electrik, Marble Beer House, Battery Park and Oddest and a really bold art installation at Creative Corner Café from award winning Elysion Productions. There’s also loads of free music going on around Chorlton over the weekend including some parlour sessions at Dulcimer. All the information can be found on the festival website. Of course you would not want to miss the Weekender headliners as well, including Dutch Uncles, The Handsome Family, Chew Lips and Lanterns On The Lake.

NT: How can the festival benefit local artists and musicians?

PH: I think by firstly providing a platform for local artists to show their work. But also the festival provides an opportunity for their work to be seen alongside artists from around the country and the world. We try to be an outward looking festival, which never forgets that it has the community at heart. We hope that local artists will be inspired by what other people are presenting at the festival as they develop their own practice. As for music the festival gives an opportunity for local bands to perform alongside some of the best talent from around the UK and beyond, giving them an opportunity to be part of a great line-up right on their doorstep.

NT: Venues such as Dulcimer are locally renowned for staging regular and dependable live music; what can we look forward to there during the festival?

PH: There’s loads going on in all our venues. Over the Weekender at Dulcimer you’ll see local bands Blind Atlas and I Am Mechanical perform, there will also be an all day event on the last Sunday of the festival [27 May] with loads of local musicians performing. Also in Electrik on the last night of the Weekender you can enjoy a One Deck Session from club night Pop Till You Drop.

NT: How closely do you work with venues when deciding the festival schedule?

PH: Very closely, the festival would not be possible without the support of the venues.

NT: Are there any less frequently used venues to look out for?

PH: There are loads of events at Creative Corner Café this year for the first time; it’s a great space, with great people running it for the right reasons. Everyone should check it out.

The FlashTag team

NT: How important is it for the festival to accommodate initiatives such as the FlashTag flash fiction writing competition into the programme?

PH: Really important; any event that allows people to take part creatively is really important to the festival. It’s a fantastic way for people to get into writing and as a festival we are all about people getting stuck in and trying new experiences. FlashTag flash fiction delivers on all of these.

Words: Ian Pennington

Images: Courtesy of Chorlton Arts Festival

Chorlton Arts Festival and Flash Tag call for submissions

The organisers of Chorlton Arts Festival are preparing for its twelfth year in 2012, with the town-spanning multi-arts celebration scheduled for 17th to 27th May.

Tickets are available for the larger events via the Chorlton Arts Festival website. Standouts so far include The Handsome Family, Chew Lips and a solo show by Cinematic Orchestra’s Stuart McCallum, while Swimming will perform the first ‘binaural’ headphone event to appear in Chorlton, at Wilbraham St. Ninian’s United Reformed Church. For that, a live performance by Nottingham band Swimming will be broadcast to a separate room from which binaural artist Dallas Simpson will remix the sounds before they reach the headphones of audience members.

On the literary side of the festival a group of Manchester based writers, editors and bloggers named FlashTag will judge a short story competition, which will culminate in a literary event as part of the festival on 23 May. The deadline for submissions is 27 April and guidelines for entry can be found on the FlashTag website.

The FlashTag group are also involved with the organisation of National Flash Fiction Day, which will take place on 16 May and will accept entries until 10 April.

Words: Ian Pennington
Images: Courtesy of Chorlton Arts Festival

An edited version of this article first appeared on Manchester Mule.

Chorlton Arts Festival: Dislocation Dance @ St Clement's Church, Monday 23rd May 2011

I love pop music. I have always loved pop music, even before I understood what it meant or where it came from. When I was a teenager, I loved the dominant sound of the day – britpop. The first album I ever bought was Moseley Shoals by Ocean Colour Scene. I listened to The Longpigs, to Oasis, to Blur, (take a breath), to The Bluetones, Echobelly, Cast. When I was a little bit older, I began to listen to their antecedents – Paul Weller, The Jam, The Beatles. The fucking Beatles. To make it to the Beatles, I had to battle through, past or around Space, Menswear and fucking Suede. Well, it was worth it when I got there.

Unlike many people who are interested in pop music, the house in which I grew up was not particularly musical, or at least it was not soaked in the sounds of Western pop. My parents listened to Bollywood playback singers, more so in the car than in the house. My father’s favourites were, and still are, people like Mohammed Rafi, while my mother preferred the female singers, such as Lata Mangeshkar. So it was only much later on that I heard Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen, and began to trace historical influences less obvious than the simple Beatles – Smiths – Stone Roses – Oasis trajectory.

It was at that point that I began to get into post-punk, listening to the bands that had been emerging around the same time as Factory; associated with it, influenced by it or subsequently influencing it. I was attracted to the darkness, the misery, the exposition of a beaten post-industrial landscape created by Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher. Of course, this misery was often clothed in upbeat melodies, and many of the songs were love songs. But they were not flippant, they did not ignore where they came from, they were mired in it. There was no attempt to escape it, nor to festishise it through explicit reference. It simply was. You could hear it in the reverberations of the singing, in the strained guitars, in the muffled - not quite defeated, not quite defiant - anger. Songs like Hand in Glove by the Smiths and, of course, Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division are perfect examples.

I had never heard of Dislocation Dance before reading through the programme for the Chorlton Arts Festival. It bills them as experimental jazz punk, and describes them as having been initially signed on the same label as Buzzcocks, before signing for Rough Trade at the same time as The Smiths. A bit of further research has informed me that they were friends with the Factory crowd. They were once flown back from a tour of the USA by one Anthony H. Wilson, after a mishap with their original tickets left them stranded there. This has all built up a picture of something really quite exciting. So I’m excited.

I arrive in the hallway of St Clement’s Church, with the partition doors still closed while the band sets up. We can hear them sound checking, and they sound a little more conventional than I had imagined, a little more bubblegum. But that’s OK. It’s quite possible to be happy and heartfelt, or saccharine and ironic, or for the soundcheck songs not to be representative of the whole set. There’s any number of explanations, so I don’t think too much about it. I look around me and see a crowd that makes me quite happy to live in Manchester. Not a group of hipsters eager to impress, but mostly people over the age of thirty. I wonder if some of them remember the band from the 80s, or if some of them actually know or knew the band personally. There are also a couple of children under the age of ten, whose parents I assume are here too.

So the doors open, and we file into the church. St Clement’s is a beautiful building, dimly lit tonight to create a lovely warmth. The band is set up in what I think is known as the chancel, in front of the altar. The evening sun shines through a stained glass window above, showering them in shimmering blues and reds. We sit in the crossing, surrounded by shadows.

Ian Runacres tells us they will start with softer tunes before getting on to the heavier stuff. So they kick off, with Phil Lukes singing the first three songs, while also playing ukelele. He has a deep, rich voice that fills the church and seems to work well in the absence of the bass guitar for these songs. Jon Board plays trumpet and (I think) French horn to add some texture. This is enjoyable pop, with a touch of the wistful, and reminds me of Teenage Fanclub.

For the next few songs, Ian Runacres takes over on vocals and Lukes replaces his ukelele with a bass. This creates a real change in the sound, as Runacres’ voice is higher-pitched and his range a little narrower. The songs lose that wistful touch and seem to vacillate between self-indulgent and glib. Some are both. A song called Shinjuku Junction has the lyrics, “Shinjuku Junction / East meets West / We see the best of all around us / The best meets the rest.” I begin to see where certain aspects of britpop came from. His voice is not unlike Ian Broudie’s and some of these tunes remind me of The Lightning Seeds. I fucking hate the Lightning Seeds.

I begin to contemplate what it is that I love in pop. Whatever it is, this is not it. When Lukes takes over singing again, I begin to wake up a little. His voice has a greater resonance that seems to penetrate real feelings, whereas Runacres’ seems to bounce off them. He introduces one song, “Like most of my songs, it’s about my misspent youth.” Misspent how? Why? I don’t feel that this music is attempting to breach the superficiality of the imagined experiences of our youth. And pop music can do that. I know it can do that, I have seen it do that. I came here tonight expecting to hear these guys do that.

Not all pop music analyses, not all pop music describes, not all pop music is about pain, or is qualified by pain. But it does have to engage. At least make me dance, make me tap my feet. Tonight I’m not engaged, I’m floundering. Runacres seems to be enjoying himself, which I’m heartened by. But this seems to be a reminiscence of something for him and his band. It sounds pleasant enough, but it is ultimately unedifying for those of us who do not share a history with him. It is tame. While Lukes seems to mean it more, his ultimate lack of conviction is belied by his introduction to The Ruins of Manchester: “It’s not my fault, it’s just a song.”

This is not angry, nor is it impassioned. It is certainly not experimental. It is a kind of plodding pop that carries no meaning for me. One review I found of their work in the 80s described it as “background music for the foreground.”

Pop music can do more than this.

Words & Images: Piyush Pushkar (Piyush also writes the Doctor Magiot blog)

Chorlton Arts Festival Launch featuring Badly Drawn Boy, Thursday 19th May 2011

Congratulatory backslapping is rarely a spectator sport, but the oratory build-up creates a swelling of pride in the precinct's populace, who're later led through Chorlton Arts Festival's newly opened metaphorical doors by the subsequent strums of an elevated Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy.

Gough initially completes a Chorlton FM radio slot before volunteers, contributors and organisers are thanked in various short speeches. And onto the night's performers. First, a schoolgirl dance troupe's R'n'B dance mix tests the soundsystem, which in turn awakens the decent-sized early evening audience.

Despite operating under a thinly veiled disguise of ‘special guest’ until the morning of the event, Badly Drawn Boy, one of the three patrons of the festival (the others are John Thomson and Carol Ann Duffy, since you ask) is an obvious choice to draw in the crowds. His warm, homely reflections know how to twang on the heartstrings of reminisce, although his lofty presence intermittently loses audience attention.

For the man himself, it must be surreal; standing mid-balcony overpass – acoustic guitar in hand, microphone afore – faces glaring upwards almost in celestial worship. Positioned below, the amplification rises up to him. The sensation must be one of flying atop the soundwaves to tour the rooftops of his hometown. Or perhaps it just affords him an alternate view of the chipped lurid green precinct decor.

Regardless, the Chorlton resident talks us through a tour, of sorts, stopping off between songs to indicate locations relevant to the occasional ditty. Chorlton Cafe is evoked by ‘Journey From A To B’ and Born In The UK’s title track due to the album’s cover photo, while ‘Is There Nothing We Could Do?’ was written in response to Gough's own soundtracking of The Fattest Man In Britain, which features an amble down Wilbraham Road. There isn't a 'local landmark only' policy in set-list selection though, as 'You Were Right', 'This Electric' and 'The Time Of Times' also resonate past the shop windows.

He’s keen to state the reason behind his bird’s eye view. {this way:UP} is the National Lottery and Arts Council funded answer. The project also explains why you’ll see artwork in high places through the town until the end of the month, although as far as I can tell only Gough himself warrants a skyward glance at this particular precinct positioned point of the festival.

Words & Images: Ian Pennington

Arts, Music & Events Preview, April 2011 (Part One)

This latest preview feature again hits after a small bite has already been digested. There’s plenty more to chew on, so without further ado...

Can you believe that it is four years since Prostitutes & Policemen’s first uptempo clubnights raved the Attic’s roof off? Well you can take your nostalgic disbelief with you tonight to Sankeys where they’ve listed the wacky mix-merchants Crookers atop an electro-ridden bill.

Another one for this evening – as well as tomorrow, Thursday 7th – is a film showing screened by Manchester Friends of the Earth. They’ve organised ‘The End of the Line’ in Didsbury to highlight over-fishing, followed by Pete Postlethwaite’s climate change insight ‘Age of Stupid’ on Thursday in Levenshulme. They’re asking a few quid per night.

Thursday 7th is a packed night all around. There’s the monthly An Outlet musical showcase Some Drum I Would Never Hear, which is pitched against a pair of art exhibition launch nights. New collective Underground Separation – art students at Salford Uni – promise a varied Soup Kitchen spread, curated across a broad range of disciplines within visual arts. And to evoke an audio mood Now Then Manchester favourite Paul Green has stepped in to soundtrack the space.

Across town BLANK SPACE has another outsourced exhibition adorning its insides; Perception/Deception is the title that No Such Thing Collective will be wrapping their creative arms around.

For Friday 8th Northern Groove are involved in the staging of Horace Andy, of Massive Attack fame, and his regular backing band Dub Asante at Band On The Wall. That’s not enough reggae? A second dose awaits on Saturday 9th. More for Friday, though, is offered by Micron and their booking of Kiki for funky Finnish frolics. They set up shop at Joshua Brooks, as ever.

In the DJing vibe, Piccadilly Records staff clubnight project Wet Play finds itself again in fresh surrounds, unsurprisingly given its sporadic, nomadic existence thus far. That’s Soup Kitchen on Saturday 9th, where you’ll find John Morales rubbing shoulders with the regular sound providers including Ruf Dug. Around a corner or two This City Is Ours bring the curtain down on their stay at An Outlet, whose neighbours would prefer the bustling clamour of their inner-city living space to be untouched by the relatively chilled-out beats of Blood Boy et al’s combined record collection.

Fast-forward to Monday 11th for some more visual mind food. This one’s Manchester FoE endorsed but run by Man Met Uni in the All Saints Building, who’ve picked out ‘Food Inc’ to tickle your optical taste buds. Back on the aural of the senses, 80s throwback Aussie indie ensemble Architecture In Helsinki’s tour stops off at one of the Academy venues on Wednesday 13th.

Thursday 14th is one of those inexplicably arduous nights in terms of narrowing down what to attend from a long list, as follows... Japanchester, featuring From The Kites Of San Quentin, Day For Airstrikes, Plank[!] and Trojan Horse, is an effort to raise money to help to support post-quake Japan; A Hawk And A Hacksaw at Islington Mill, supported by Dan Haywood and the New Hawks (keep an eye out for an interview to be published here very soon); Saki Bar’s Grand Reopening Weekend misjudges when the weekend is by starting up on a weekday with Reggae Thursdays; finally a factual one in Chorlton for those looking to align their house with a more environmental norm (or just save money through efficiency) – it’s a precursor to Saturday 16th’s Big Green Festival, both taking place at St Clement’s Church on Chorlton’s Edge Lane, where the theme is Bike To The Future (geddit?) and the best all female dance troupe in the UK, Spokes, will perform.

Deep breath. Friday 15th is one I’ll pinpoint a little better. Cutloose present Theo Parrish at the Roadhouse. Cosmic disco grooves aplenty. It’s Record Store Day during the following day, Saturday 16th, so if you’re keen then maybe try an all-nighter to beat the early birds into the inevitable queue outside Piccadilly Records. And ignore this fella (not that anyone’s paid much attention to the NME for a long time anyway).

More for the Saturday, you say? Here’s a couple: Carefully Planned reach ten in their All-Dayer series at Castle Hotel, while Eastern Bloc Records eclipses that milestone with a second instalment of quarter-century back-slapping at Islington Mill.

In other news, Sounds From The Other City tickets are on sale so catch them before the guaranteed sell-out (based on the evidence of all previous years), or get involved with the volunteering team to see the festival from a different angle and make a few new friends. The Imploding Inevitable Festival, a recent regular at the deed poll office, is another with a nod from Now Then Manchester; June 10th & 11th, Fell Foot Wood.

Chorlton Arts Festival has a volunteers open day on Saturday 16th – and make sure you pencil in 29th April as their deadline for The Flash Mob Writing Competition, organised by a group of Manchester bloggers - many of whom can be found on our Manchester Blogs section (left).

And in the immortal words of Columbo, just one more thing: have a little listen to Big Block 454 for some wah-wah funky tones, mellow acoustic oneirism and deadpan lyricism.

Words: Ian Pennington

Arts, Music & Events Preview, January 2011 (Part One)

If you’ve been consulting your Gregorian calendar lately then you’ll no doubt have spotted a couple of things. Namely, we’re slowly rolling into another year and this preview feature is a few days overdue. The former significantly more obvious than the latter, perhaps, but both indicative of the sleepy nature of Januarys in general.

That’s not to say there isn’t anything to sink your creative teeth into this month. Oldham Street’s refurbished Castle Hotel hosts Welsh linguists Colorama following their session on the airwaves for Marc Riley’s 6music show – all this evening, Wednesday 5th. And later on, Now Wave’s DJs pick up where they left off in 2010, spinning their tips for 2011's buzz bands to fill the Deaf Institute floor.


Saturday 8th brings another Carefully Planned All-Dayer, albeit a rescheduled one due to pre-Xmas snow. That’ll also take place at the in-demand Castle Hotel with eight more hand-picked musicians from the world of indie-folk. For a more chilled affair that evening, the electronic types at This City Is Ours continue their monthly slot at An Outlet, with tunes selected by Anytime, Blood Boy, LSN and Borland DJs.

The Art Corner launches a new exhibition with a preview night on Monday 10th, capturing the zeitgeist with an artistic interpretation of everybody’s favourite fad, ‘austerity Britain’. They’ve called it Cuts & Grazes, roped in a palette of artists and set an end date at 30th of this month.


Onto the world of film, the curtain comes down on the New British Cinema Quarterly’s run at the Cornerhouse on Tuesday 11th with a screening of brilliantlove, which stars local Manc actor Liam Browne in the role of a besotted character named Manchester. Produced by North Eastern champions of outsider cinema Pinball Films, the film has already been met by independent cinema kudos and an impressive-looking soundtrack includes Sol Seppy, Wild Beasts, David Holmes and James Yorkston.

There’s a seminar worthy of your time on Wednesday 12th (you might want to double-check the date - I've read conflicting info) if you’re prone to a whinge about the frequency of buses. The GMITA (Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority) will discuss their forthcoming budget at the Town Hall, but to attend you have to book yourself in by Friday 7th.

Islington Mill bursts into life on Thursday 13th with a trio of alt-rockers in the form of Charles Hayward, Barberos and Gnod.

Over the weekend of 15th and 16th, an alternative political group currently known as ‘Network X’ will hold discussions with the aim of homogenising the activities of similar-minded groups, both local and national. Expect to be involved with planning strategies, defining the shared points of a political ideology and structuring methods of achieving aims. If you’d like to make your voice heard then that’s the time to do it. Contact them for details.


Finally, Chorlton Arts Festival may seem a fair way off in the distant future as yet (19th-30th May), but they’re planning events as I type and will continue to accept submissions for ideas until Monday 17th. Forms can be downloaded here and for more info the contact is Philip.

Words: Ian Pennington

Preview: Chorlton Arts Festival

The Chorlton Arts Festival is back for another not-for-profit year of music, art, literature, film and performance. It has achieved a success that belies its humble origins a decade ago. However, it seems they had big ideas even back then. Festival Director Phillip Hannaway states: “There were three guiding principles: to provide a platform for local artists; to provide opportunities for our local children to experience the arts; and finally to provide high quality events, free of charge or at low cost. These principles are still as relevant in our tenth year as they were in 2001.” Last year, it attracted 25,000 visitors, from local to city-wide and national, to a massive programme of goings-on and happenings.


This audience figure suggests both the broad appeal that the festival holds, and also the big names that they attract to raise the profile of the event and bring world-renowned music to South West Manchester. In the past, jazz luminaries Courtney Pine and Jacqui Dankworth have graced the stages, and must-see big names this year include a collaboration between Jazz maestro(ess) Clare Martin and composer Sir Richard Rodney Bennett fresh from world tours, folkster(ess) Beth Jeans Houghton, Canadian band The Acorn, and that guy from Bottom (the bald one) making music.

But with all this global talent, is it ever difficult to keep it a locally-focused event? “It's not a struggle at all,” Hannaway replies, “as being at the heart of such a creative suburb means we are never short of local artists who want to get involved in the festival, and the quality of the performances that come from local people never ceases to amaze us”.


There are hundreds of small events, choir performances, workshops, film showings, gallery exhibitions, artist talks, dance classes, local musical talent and such. This isn't just nice talk about being 'community-based' or 'local' – it's at the heart of the festival's programme.


There are also showpiece art-involvement events like 'Flashlight'. The idea is that lots of people from Chorlton buy a light and then meet in a flashmob style at various points around the 'village' to 'take away a new perspective or experience of the place in which they live'. So it might just be a few people holding some torches, or it could be something more... How will you know unless you join in?

And it's not just about an evening's entertainment – there is a strong emphasis on educational value. A schools programme runs concurrently with the festival, asking respected cultural bodies like the Hallé Orchestra to get involved with 5,000 of Chorlton's schoolchildren “who might get their first taste of the arts in Chorlton, which will go on to foster a lifelong interest” enthuses Hannaway. There is clearly great passion here, and it is reflected throughout the festival's ethos and attractions.


One of the great things about an event like this is the diversity. It feels like this whole article is just one a big list of all the things to do – and it could be. But it's not just about how much is going on – it's about local and international combining to provide Chorlton, and the region, with quality, low-price entertainment. It's an opportunity to shine a spotlight on all the amazing grassroots stuff that goes on below the cultural radar all year round, and put it on the same billing as big names that garner respect the world over.

So what are you waiting for? Hop on the 86 and come and join us in the 'burbs for 12 days of good times!

Chorlton Arts Festival runs from Thursday 20th May until Sunday 30th May.

Words: Andy Rees
Pictures: Courtesy of Chorlton Arts Festival