May is the month when we really start to see the weather moving into overdrive. Spring has sprung, flowers unfold, the sun’s warmth starts to embrace and more often than not we get a Bank Holiday that somehow catches the entire nation by surprise and is a proper scorcher. So yes, May is a month when the sky gets brighter and our clothes get lighter – so here are just a few suggestions to get you out and about in what we hope will be wonderful weather.
We love a nice bit of architecture and Victoria Baths are certainly that. At their opening ceremony in 1906 they were dubbed by the Lord Mayor 'a water palace of which every citizen of Manchester is proud', and thanks to their restoration that’s as true today as it was then.
The partially restored baths are a heritage visitor attraction that opens its doors every March/April to October/November for weekly guided tours, public open days and special events.
Pop along to support this amazing, beautiful, stained glass-filled edifice and reawaken your inner water baby.
Football is Art
National Football Museum
M4 3BG
Now - October
The NFM have come up with a brilliant exhibition in Football is Art. It explores how artists from Paul Nash to Banksy have depicted the joy, despair and passion of football. Spanning nearly one hundred years, the exhibition is the first time such a large and varied display of art depicting the game has been brought together in one place.
Last year 5,000 folk took part in this trekfest and in 2019, yet again for the whole of May there are 400 free guided walks across every borough of Manchester and covering all abilities. There are also themed walks, games of walking netball and more besides. So if there’s a wander you’ve wondered about, download the programme here and see if you can do it with your own crew.
In this fascinating (and free) exhibition, landscape photographer and researcher Michael C Coldwell presents images of Leeds as you've never seen the city before. The images will show archival images of Leeds projected onto scenes in the same locales today.
The Glasgow Contemporary Art Fair returns to the Marquee at Kelvingrove with an exciting range of original contemporary and affordable art plucked from art galleries, professional artists and art organisations from across the UK.
Prices range from £50 to £20,000 so there’s something for most budgets and a range of household names, established Scottish artists and the pick of emerging artists including many Glasgow School of Art alumni.
Dippy the National History Museum’s iconic is on a road trip across the UK and he’s on the move again this month and heading to the GRM. So if you have a deeply dippy dino fan in your life get your skates on and get over to the Great North Museum.
This early bird of a rock festival falls right on the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend in Newcastle. Noel gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Foals, Stereophonics, Johnny Marr and more besides are starring in a weekend-long celebration just a stroll from the station.
This is one of the most unexpected of our festivals in the North, it’s also one of our favourites – where else are you going to get to see handmade maypole-dancing robots or experience algorithmic Siberian Trance? Yes, nowhere.
Algomech is a meshing together of computer interaction and the codes of everyday life and it promises to give you a greater understanding of the two. If you’d rather just get out here and enjoy yourself though, it also provides pure fun as well. We’d be very surprised if you can’t find something in the festival programme that flips your switches.
