In The City – the highlight of Manchester’s musical calendar – is back later this year: from Saturday October 28 until Tuesday October 31 to be precise.

It usually falls on a conventional weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun), but this year there’s a Labour Party Conference in town.

I’ve been involved with every ITC since coming to Manchester – from watching 30 bands in three days in 2003, to reporting on the conference itself last year. This year I hope to be promoting ITC events myself – more to follow on that.

The beauty of the festival is the buzz generated by one-man myth-making machine Anthony H Wilson. He’s curated the festival with his partner, former Miss England, Yvette Livesey since 1992. Nice hair, Tony:

Back in 1999 the festival moved to Liverpool – to a Holiday Inn no less. Sensibly, the conference returned to Manchester, and has been hosted at The Midland Hotel for some years now.

ITC success stories – if you can call them that – include Coldplay and The Darkness being signed following performances before the dozens of A&R men who dared to venture north.

And while they played conventional music venues, it’s the more unusual gig venues such as One Central Street and Teasers that are often worth a visit.

This year expect XFM Manchester to get in on the act – it may well replace ITC’s in-house radio station and begin broadcasting some unsigned gigs.

Nice to see ITC HQ is using Flickr to share its photos, by the way.