Your Hatters Hostel

The Parklife Festival featuring gigs with Friendly Fires, Calvin Harris and  Erol Alkan among others has been sold for a little while now. 20.000 people will be comin to Platt Fields Park for it’s 100 anniversary for a day of music, singing, dancing, eating, drinking and partying. Are you one of those lucky people with a ticket? Or are you maybe trying your luck by turning up outside hoping to buy someone’s spare? Anyhow, why not make it a big night in Manchester by booking yourself a bed at Hatters! No last trains or buses to worry about just take the 24 hour bus service to the centre and put your dizzy head down on a soft pillow… Book beds on our website hattersgroup.com, by calling 0161 236 9500 or e-mail us on manchester@hattersgroup.com

May seems to be high season for festivals in Manchester. Right now there are two of them happening: Kino International Short Film Festival is screening various short films throughout the week. Some screenings are free and others you will have to pay for. It started on the 26th so most of the program is done but you still have the weekend to watch loads of exciting shorts from all over the world! Dubus – Music based short from Russia MAPS, the northern quarter creative arts festival, is on this weekend as well with plenty of gigs, exhibitions and circus workshops (!). Headlining is Brighton indie rock band Doll & The Kicks. Another exciting festival coming up in Manchester this month is FutureEverything, formerly known as the FutureSonic festival. They are offering a wide range of concerts, club nights, art exhibitions, conferences and much more. Events worth giving some extra attention is the previously mentioned Animal Collective screening and the event called Dirty Electronics where you build your own electronic instrument from scratch and after taking part of the performance get to take it with you home!

Yet Another reason to come to Manchester: New York based indie group Animal Collective together with Danny Perez have released a new album called ODDSAC and it’s not just any kind of album, it’s a visual one. The screenings will take place in The Mint Lounge on on May 14th and there will only be 7 screenings in the UK, three in London, one in Leeds and two in Manchester so this is an exclusive event, folks! The tickets are a mere £8 so pull yourselves together and book your tickets before it’s too late! book here Another tip for you is the Deerhunter gig at Club Academy on the 4th.  I managed to miss him this summer when he played Swedish festival Way Out West but was told it was an amazing show – even if you don’t know the songs- and will definitely not be missing it this time! You can listen to his latest album on Spotify and for those of you who haven’t been blessed with a Spotify account there are some tracks available on his Myspace.

This is superb little art cafe the food is cheap and of great quality its an ideal place to take a break from the hustle and bustle of a busy city. You can also get a quiet cup of nice coffee at crazy o’ clock (that’s 2am in Hatters speak) on a Saturday night/Sunday morning if you want to keep going even when there is nodrink left to be drunk. They open until 6am in the morning which is pretty cool in the city centre. Check it out:http://www.nexusartcafe.com/