As if in response to Julie’s recent plea for the city’s bloggers to emerge from the woodwork, Kate over at the vacationing Manchizzle has just announced details of the third annual Manchester Blog Awards.

The event’s format has worked well (I would say that, wouldn’t i?) but this year Kate’s refreshing things a bit by dropping the Best Political Blog category (so 2006/7…) and bringing in Best Neighbourhood Blog, to recognise a growing number of locale-specific blogs such as Mini Manchester and Roblog.

The awards, backed by the Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Digital Development Agency, will take place on Wednesday 22 October back at Matt & Phreds on Tib Street. There’ll be readings by local bloggers including Chris Killen from Day of Moustaches, plus DJing from Manchester’s music bloggers (full information here).

In the meantime, voting is open until Thursday 18 September – so email mancblogawards AT googlemail.com, clearly stating your name, where you live, the name and url of of the blog(s) you’re nominating and which category or categories you’re nominating for. Check out the Manchizzle post for everything that you need to know, including details of who qualifies.

That’s the question posed by Julie Delvaux over at her Notebooks – Los Cuadernos de Julia blog. A year or two ago there were semi-regular events organised by and for Manchester’s blogging community – but in 2008 not even a quiet pint in a dingy pub (the Castle has shut down, after all).

Julie wants to right that wrong and is therefore appealing for anyone interested in going to a monthly/bi-monthly event to get in touch. Craig McGinty and several other Manchester bloggers have already posted comments in response, and a September date is in the offing.

Sarah Hartley over at the MEN’s The Mancunian Way blog has mentioned it too, in post explaining a new initiative she has just set up. Starting this week, she’s going to be highlighting some of Manchester’s ‘internet stars’ – people who have blogs or websites in some way connected to the city.

The profiles, including of this week’s www.manchester-blog.com, will go online as well as in the Saturday edition’s e-view section – so if you want to nominate yourself or someone else, email Sarah now.

You’ve probably seen it advertised around town, but the deadline for this year’s Best of Manchester Awards is fast approaching so its organisers are making one last push for entries.

The annual competition, hosted by Urbis, ‘celebrates innovation in art, music and fashion’. This deliberately broad scope means art, for example, can include illustration, photography, graphic design as well as fine art and sculpture.

There are also apparently ‘no age limits, no hype and no rules’, so any creative professional living or working in Manchester can enter. Prizes include professional career development, an exhibition in Urbis and a one-off cash prize.

Susie Stubbs, who’s helping to promote the event, has been in touch with an update about this year’s competition:

It’s early days yet as the deadline isn’t until the end of the month, but we’ve already had around 100 entries. Some of the work that’s come in so far is fantastic – the judges are going to have their work cut out.

And the judging panel itself makes for impressive reading: chaired by designer Peter Saville and including Caroline Elleray (head of A&R at Universal Publishing), Miranda Sawyer (Guardian/Observer writer and broadcaster), Luke Bainbridge (Observer Music Monthly), Justin Crawford (The Unabombers/Electriks), Tim Thomas (Blueprint Studios), Claire Lomax (Flux) and Kwong Lee (Castlefield Gallery).

The deadline for entries is 30 June and you can follow the latest from the awards camp at their blog, http://bestofmanchester.wordpress.com/. For more information on entering visit the Best of Manchester section on the Urbis website.

I’ve touched on psychogeography here a few times before and, what with it getting mainstream coverage of late, it’s convenient that Manchester is currently hosting not one but two psychogeography festivals.

Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives, or TRIP for short, runs from Thursday 19 June until Saturday (and beyond) and takes advantage of some of the city’s most recognisable locations, both indoors and out, including…

Thursday, 2pm, the MMU John Dalton Building lobby: Identikit Manchester – Mark Rainey leads a walk themed around corporate chain stores.

Friday, 2pm, outside JD’s Refectory at the MMU John Dalton Building: Bury That Dog – A walk around haunted Manchester with Peter Portland.

Saturday, 3pm, at Whitworth Park: Frank Kickball Jesus presents a psychogeographical ball game – US v UK psychogeographers.

Saturday, 8pm, upstairs at the Britons Protection: A Psychogeographic Cabaret – featuring performance poetry with soundscape and field recordings, plus short films, surprise guests and random acts of subversive joy.

Sunday, 2pm, Café Pop on Oldham Street: Postcards from Nowhere – a wander addressing issues of surveillance and CCTV; all participants will receive a unique piece of GPS art by Max Livesey.

There are also art exhibitions at the Royal Exchange, Nexus Cafe and the Zion Centre, and this is just a small selection of the festival events. Here’s the PDF flyer and visit their homepage for late additions – or read the MEN and Metro previews for their recommendations.

TRIP is also running alongside Manchester’s own psychogeography festival, Get Lost, which is organised by the Loiterers Resistance Movement – visit their site for more information on that.

As an aside, it’s good to see the festival using WordPress.com blogging platform for its homepage. Looks much better than your standard Blogger.com site, doesn’t it?