I posted back in December to say that Manchester’s ‘urban festival of art’ was already beginning to take shape, and with less than a month to go now I thought I’d write an update.

I’ve been prompted in part by Futuresonic’s marketing team, who’ve emailed me twice recently and seem to be making a concerted effort to connect with Manchester’s online community.

Futuresonic 2007, which runs from Thursday May 10 to Saturday May 12, includes the following strands:

Music For The Beep Generation, the festival’s music strand, features the likes of Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flur, French hip-hop sensation TTC and legendary music pioneers, Faust …

Futurevisual celebrates the 40th anniversary of seminal multimedia events that took place in the halcyon year of 1967. The famous UFO Club, the focus of the 60’s London multimedia scene, is reborn at Futuresonic 2007. Futurevisual brings together legendary figures from the 1960s with some of the most cutting-edge audio-visual artists working in the world today …

Art For Shopping Centres is an exhibition of major, world premier artworks in Manchester Arndale, the main city centre shopping centre in Manchester, after which you will never look at a shopping centre the same again …

The Social Technologies Summit returns with a programme that is stronger than ever before, including one session introducing the leading figures in the grass roots open source movement that is sweeping across Brazil like wild fire and captivating the world’s imagination …

EVNTS is a showcase for the best new and groundbreaking events from around the world. Since its introduction in 2005, EVNTS has grown into a community of people who each year return to give the festival an extra edge …

Faust at Academy 2 should be a highlight. The krautrockers are known for their spectacular live shows (circular saws and all) and inspired Factory bands likeJoy Division.

Last year’s Social Technologies Summit was a big hit with me – Toshio Iwai and the team behind Last.fm particularly impressing. Coincidentally, Futuresonic have secured an apt media partner this year in Myspace.

To find out more about attending check the Futuresonic site. Last year there were £10 student passes and a few daily pay-what-you-can wristbands available, and I see that the same are advertised again this year.