You may recall that a fringe-of-sorts ran alongside last year’s Manchester International Festival. Its organisers then returned in mid-January, for Not Part of New Years Eve - and they’re now makes a third outing for their own arts festival this summer.

Lasting 10 days (3-12 July), the inaugural festival features 29 events - plus four one-day sub-festivals. Again, Not Part of Festival seeks to gain extra publicity for its theatre, comedy, music, poetry, film and art events by placing them under one name.

The Not Part of website, which has a full brochure, keeps timing out for me but, from yesterday’s newsletter, here are some potential highlights:

• Theatre: Below the Belt @ The Waldorf Hotel
• Theatre: 2 Plays, 2 Writers, 1 Cast @ Adelphi Studio, Salford
• Poetry: Latvian Poets @ Central Library
• Exhibition: Hats off to Cheetham Hill @ The Jewish Museum
• Multi-disciplinary: Not Part of NYE (redux) @ Moho Live
• Art and music: Birds Need Trees (Jim Noir, Aidan Smith etc) @ Urbis

The organisers are asking people to be part of Not Part of - so email them if you can film parts of the festival or just want to volunteer generally. You can also visit Not Part of on Facebook and Myspace, or read a Q&A with organiser Gareth McMann here.

I’ve mentioned the work of Old Trafford-based LetsGoGlobal.tv a couple of times before but Friday 8 February sees their annual talent showcase at MohoLive on Tib Street:

Come and help us set the mis-en-scene for a FREE explosion of films, music, bands and DJ’s. Lets Go Expo 08 is an exciting showcase of filmmaking talent and will be broacast LIVE online and into SecondLife. Featuring live music from RYNA, THE HIDDEN REVOLUTION, SALTY LIPS and FRAZER KINGS.

A selection of films will also be broadcast on the BBC Big Screen Manchester from 8pm. More information here.

Meanwhile, according to this comment, Manchester’s online TV community just grew some more:

Welcome to Manchester-live.tv, the UK’s first local-based online television service. Here you will find everything and anything related to Manchester, from the origins of Northern Soul to the latest celebrity events.

But possibly the greatest thing about Manchester-live.tv is that you are able to contribute by uploading your videos and show the world your own broadcasting skills. A group has just been formed on Facebook - Manchester Live TV! - Please join.

It’s early days but there’s already plenty of interesting stuff up there including historic footage of a Manchester Beatles concert, Frank Sidebottom’s excellent Manchester Medley and New Order performing at the Hacienda (check out Hooky’s lovely hair!).

Yup, it’s all happening in Manchester right now so here’s another link-dump…

On top of all the current Urban Screens activity - including the aforementioned A Wall is a Screen tonight - there’s also a short film night happening at Islington Mill tonight. Future Shorts features work from Poland, France, Denmark, Japan, USA, Australia and UK. It runs from 7.30pm and carries on until 2am thanks to a link-up with art club night Subtefuge, which promises ‘pyscho goulash’ from Hungarian trio Agoskodo Teliverek.

Next, if you thought Manchester International Festival was an over-hyped waste of money, look away. If not, you might consider voting for it in the UK Festival Awards 2007. MIF is up for both Best New Festival and the Innovation Award - and the only negative is that you have to register before voting.

Staying on the MIF tip, The Pianist - one of my highlights of the programme - is being broadcast on Radio 4 next Saturday, 20 October, from 2.30pm. More details here, or read my review-of-sorts here.

Also, something called mashup* Manchester takes place in Sale next Friday. It’s an event for those involved with ‘personal digital identity, social networking, Web 3.0 and TV 2.0′, which will probably mean diddly-squat to most of us. For the rest – or for those who just can’t get enough of networking – check out the mashup* website for more details.

I also want to mention New to Manchester, a blog by Tom. I’m embarassed to admit it’s taken me six months to discover it, but now that I have I’d say it’s one of the best new(ish) blogs I’ve read in a while - check out his guide to scamming Globe takeaway in West Didsbury, for example. Consider yourself blogrolled Tom.

And a quick mention for the ominously-titled The Leader’s Blog too. It’s written by Sir Richard Leese, Labour councillor for Crumpsall and leader of Manchester City Council. He got off to a flying start last month but has gone a little quiet lately. Hopefully the novelty didn’t wear off in little over a fortnight?

I’m going to use this rare moment online to dump information about some news and events I’ve recently discovered:

BBC 6 Music reports that Manchester City Council is considering a proposal to rename Whitworth Street West (home to Green Room, Rainbow Snooker Club and the Brickhouse nightclub) in honour of the late Tony Wilson. Two-thirds of residents will have to approve the name change to either Tony Wilson Way or Anthony H Wilson Way - I personally prefer the latter.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is of course the date of the Manchester Blog Awards 2007 - for which Mancubist is nominated in the arts and culture category. Remember, the venue has now changed from MohoLive (which now opens in late November) to Matt & Phreds, also on Tib Street. The city’s music bloggers will be DJing (or MP3ing…) and blogger-cum-published-writer Caroline Smailes will be doing a reading. It’s free and starts at 7pm.

Also happening tomorrow is a low-key media event called MELD. It aims to generate ideas by ‘melding the skills of Northern Journalists and Interactive Designers’. The long-term goal is to pitch ideas by 20 of the region’s hacks and geeks to ‘major industry players’. The project’s Manchester launch event takes place in Selfridge’s Moet Bar from 6pm. If you think you fit the bill email info@just-b.com.

And finally, another lovely (lapsed) blogger called Kate tipped me off about a free event happening on Friday. A Wall is a Screen is ‘part guided tour, part film night’ and invites the public to view nine short films projected on buildings across seven secret city centre locations. It’s part of Manchester Urban Screens (11-14 October, check out their other events) and begins at 9pm outside Kro Piccadilly.

See you at some or all of the above…

Back in January I wrote that no funding for the Salford Film Festival spells the end. Organisers had pulled the plug, you may recall, after a no one was found to plug a �20,000 funding hole.

Thankfully, Ciara Leeming in yesterday’s MEN reported that Salford Council had, begrudgingly, agreed to stump up the money and that the festival is now back on track:

Salford council leader John Merry said he would be sitting on the management board to ensure this year’s festival was a successful one.

He said: “We can’t win. If we hadn’t have given the money we would be accused of not listening to people. Because we have, we’re being told we’ve been shamed into it. That’s simply not true.

“We were quite satisfied once we examined the business plan that this was an event we would be happy to support. Encouraging learning and creativity is one of the council’s key pledges and the Salford Film Festival certainly fits with that.”

Elsewhere, however, the future of Afflecks Palace still hangs in the balance.

Over 5,500 people have now signed an online petition to keep it open and, as the MEN reported last month, the two sides are currently engaged in talks. Interestingly, someone claiming to be Manchester councillor Pat Karney has been posting comments on that MEN story.

With just five weeks left before the lease expires on June 14, much of Manchester awaits further news with bated breath.