But now, when I try to look back at the City Bites Manchester site, it’s just a holding page. I guess with the festival launching tomorrow they’ll be hurriedly sorting it out. In the meantime, I’ve been looking at the background of organiser Gary Greenwood. According to How-Do, he’s the publisher of Manchester-based Twice Magazine, although that publication’s website is also currently down (PDF samples here). Nevertheless, I’ve tracked down some more information about City Bites here:

It’s time to fall in love with your city all over again… well, at least the food and drink!. The 2009 City Bites festival will take place January 11th-15th and January 18th-22nd and will showcase the Manchester dining scene as a hotbed of culinary activity and diverse dining options. A number of this year’s participating restaurants are in some of City Centres finest hotels, creating the ideal opportunity to explore all that the area has to offer by day, enjoy a fabulous three-course dinner with family and/or friends in the evening, and then stay the night.

While I can’t imagine too many locals would be willing do just that, the prospect of three-course meals for £7, £12 or £18 sounds much better. Each restaurant – Abode, Brasserie Blanc, Brasserie Gerrard, Livebait, Piccadilly Lounge, Dough, Chaophraya, Obsidian, label, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Space, Robbies, The New Samsi, The Metropolitan, Luso, Apotheca, Jem&I, Bacchanalia, The Market Restaurant, Second Floor Brasserie, City Cafe, Pau Brasil, The Northern Quarter Restaurant, Dilli and Zumar – will also offer a signature cocktail and suggested wine pairing.

Full details from the City Bites site – if/when now it’s back up.

You know you’re somewhere good when everyone who walks in asks their friends ’so where did you hear about this place?’ That’s what happens whenever I visit Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street – visitor after visitor wondering why they’ve only just discovered the place.

The cafe is setting itself apart as somewhere nice, quiet and pretension-free to have a cup of tea in the city centre. There are loads of Teapigs flavours on offer, plus various non-tea-based drinks, and the food’s good too – last week’s spicy pumpkin soup was probably their best so far. It was recently shortlisted for the Food and Drink Festival’s Best Casual Dining award, eventually losing out to the Cup.

Nexus has plenty of space, flexible seating, great music (expect to hear the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian and Amiina), free wi-fi and very friendly staff – and it hosts regular days and nights of music and film, with changing art exhibitions too. I dropped in during one such event on Saturday afternoon and it was the busiest I’ve seen the place.

Until this week, Nexus Art Cafe has been open from 10am until 7pm on Tuesday through to Sunday. To celebrate its decision to open on Mondays as well, its promising free tea and coffee throughout today. If you haven’t already tried it, now’s the time to visit Nexus.

[Photo by Jess Higgins]

The return of New Islington Festival on Saturday at Old Mill Street, near the soon-to-be-closed Ilva. The event, which was a bit of a wash-out last year, features live music from The Jesse Rose Trip, The Mouse Outfit, personal favourites Tim & Sam’s Tim And The Sam Band and others, plus bloggers Jon and James DJing to promote their new clubnight, Dig for Victory! Spectangular will present a programme of Manchester-based short film and photography, while The King’s Arms Knitting Club will be holding a knitting circle, plus various other activities. It’s free.

The Spotlights Bar at the Library Theatre will host a wine fair on Friday, 6pm-9pm. You’re invited to try 50 top wines from around the world (plus some malt whiskys) with live entertainment also provided. Tickets are a very reasonable £10 and are available in advance from Oddbins on Fountain Street – call 228 0849 for more information. Any profits go to mental health charity Mind.

This Sunday is ‘First Sunday’ for the loiterers resistance movement over at the Nowhere Fest blog. To celebrate (?), they’re organising a walk ‘focused around the CCTV cameras which guard the people’s republic of Mancunia’. ‘We may lead you delightfully astray but we promise it’s all perfectly legal,’ they say, adding that the walk will probably be followed by music and refreshments. Meet at Cafe Pop, in the basement of Pop Boutique on Oldham Street, between 1pm and 2pm if you’re interested in some Channel Four-less Big Brother viewing. More info via loiter@hepzombie.co.uk or on 07974929589.

Plus Beck’s Fusions, which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, at Castlefield Arena. Tickets for Friday and Saturday have been given away now but today, Thurday, is a free, non-ticketed event featuring interactive installations, DJs (Charlatan members, Dave Haslam and Simon’s Mobile Disco), short films, plus food and drink.

Have a good one!

And while 13 bands (of varying degrees of fame) alone aren’t enough to sustain this three-day event, it’s beefed up by almost the same number of visual artists – including British collective United Visual Artists, who have worked with Massive Attack in the past, including at Meltdown Festival just last month.

Tickets are free but you inevitably need to subject yourself to future Beck’s marketing campaigns to qualify. With 17,000 tickets available for Friday 5 and Saturday 6 September, you’d have thought it would be easy enough to secure some – but just yesterday I received an email informing me that I still hadn’t been successful.

The deadline for applying is this Wednesday, 20 August, and you’ve got to be over 18 to be at the UK’s ‘biggest ever collaborative art and music event’.

The synopsis sounds entertaining:

In a bid to become Europe’s Capital of Cooking, the power-crazed Lady Mayoress has banned all-day breakfasts in Bury and forces black puddings to be re-branded as Les Puddings Noir. Revolt is in the air…

And the big-budget trailer is cryptic if nothing else:

Les Puddings Noir is only on for three days – from Thursday through to Saturday (including a Saturday matinée performance). Tickets are just £10 (£8 concessions) plus a 50p booking fee and I hear that some are available for each performance, though the opening night may sell out on the day.

This Friday is the penultimate SFX event for the summer and features the super-talented Roger Quigley and guests, Sarah Lockwood and Otto Smart. Both Roger and Otto’s band the Montgolfier Brothers and Roger’s solo project At Swim Two Birds are personal favourites. They’re not huge here, despite their music being the perfect soundtrack to a rainy Manchester day – but do ok in Spain apparently.

Here’s a video for At Swim Two Birds’ In Bed With Your Best Friend.

Roger and friends play from 6pm until 7pm, and beer and wine are priced at £2 from 5.30pm until 7pm. The bar will also be serving Pimms, to tie in with the current Royal Exchange production of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, which has now been extended until Friday 16 August. All stage-level tickets for the play next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are just £5 if you quote ‘Hay Fever Offer’ when booking on 833 9833.

It’s only a short one – 5pm until 5.30pm – and it precedes his proper show at Sankeys later that night, but you can’t complain at the price (free). I’m guessing it’s a favour for fellow knob-twiddler and regular Cup fixture Mr Scruff.

I was in the Yorkshire Dales last weekend, failing to complete the Three Peaks Challenge (excuses include hailstone, lightning and terrible, terrible chafing). If I’d known about it beforehand, I probably would have stayed in sunny ol’ Manchester and attempted one of the many walks detailed on the university’s Community Mapping Project, such as the Fallowfield Loop. Who needs hills anyway?

Manchester’s Mardi Gras in August will have something of a fringe event this year, in the form of a special Club Brenda night at the Ruby Lounge. It’ll feature various DJs and bands including personal favourites the Hidden Cameras, probably Canada’s most upbeat band.

Didsbury Beer Festival has now confirmed its venue for November: St Catherine’s Social Club on School Lane. I think I’ll probably be helping out, copy writing and liaising with the press etc, so expect more information as it’s confirmed.

And don’t forget: this weekend is the aforementioned Chorlton Beer Festival (Friday and Saturday) and Summer in the Park (Saturday and Sunday). I’d recommend going to the former on Friday, as most of the beer is gone by Saturday, while Sunday’s SitP musical lineup (including Magic Arm, the Travelling Band, the Earlies, the Bottomfeeders) looks marginally better than Saturday’s. (I also hear that friends of Red Deer Club can get a limited number of tickets on the cheap.)

Finally, hello to the seven people who have taken up Mancubist email subscriptions in the last week. If there’s something you think I should be writing about, get in touch.

From the team behind the excellent Manchester Food and Drink Festival, this two-day event promises ‘food. music. drink’ – and looks far superior to the Feast! event that took place at Platt Fields Park a couple of weeks ago. Whereas that event was free, Summer in the Park costs £9.50 (one day) or £17 (weekend pass)… but you get plenty for your money:

• Dine in the Park – Try and buy from some of Manchester’s best restaurants
• Drink in the Park – A chance to sample and purchase a stunning selection of wines, champagnes continental beers and Greater Manchester ales
• Producers in the Park – Meet some of the regions best producers and sample the delights of local produce
• Play in the Park – Something for the kids… Play in the Park will create a haven for the little ones. From a baby disco to fruit kebab making, Play in the Park has it covered. Plus kids under 11 come for FREE
• Learn in the Park – Pick up some useful cooking tips from some of the best chefs as they let you into their culinary secrets
• Tea in the Park – A dedicated home for the finest and most diverse, teas, coffees, juices, smoothies, cakes and biscuits that Manchester has to offer
• Music in the Park – What better accompaniment could there be for a festival of food and drink than festival of live music on the main stage, compiling some of Manchester’s favourite artists
• Feast in the Park – As evening draws in, the inimitable Robert Owen Brown will be hosting a traditional feast in the park, featuring a huge ox-roast and seasonal vegetables. The communal banquet will kick off at tea time for those who haven’t already filled up during the day, rounding off a perfect day in the park..

Making a change for events of this type, the musical lineup is actually pretty good, with I am Kloot, the Earlies, the Travelling Band, It’s a Buffalo, Bone-Box, the Bottomfeeders, Mr Scruff, Magic Arm and Cranebuilders among the bands I’d happily pay to see.

I’m also looking forward to trying samples from the following Manchester restaurants, budget permitting: Chaophraya, The Market Restaurant, Carluccio’s, Malmaison Brasserie, Ning, Northern Quarter Restaurant, Brasserie Chez Gerard, Grado, Marmalade and Evuna.

And, drinks-wise, Odd Bar is supplying 30 wines from around the world while 20 local brewers – including Banktop, Marble, Prospect, Allgates, Hornbeam, Leyden, Fallens, Owl, Phoenix and Millstone – will be keeping me content.

All in all, it sounds like a great weekend out. Now if only the weather is obliging…

Futuresonic festival (1-5 May), featuring In Search of the Social in Manchester and more social networking than even a 15-year-old webophile can handle.
Highlight (hopefully): a late-night gig at Charlies’s hosted by yours truly
Tip: A limited number of pay-what-you-can Day Passes will be available on each day of the conference

Sounds From The Other City (4 May) is a one-day, Bank Holiday Sunday celebration of musical Salford. Around 50 bands play in tiny churches and pubs along Chapel Street, with each stage organised by a different local promoter.
Highlight (again, hopefully): David Thomas Broughton’s set at my Salford Arms stage and Craig Wood’s Manchester bootleg archive, from 1973 to the present day
Tip: Most years sell out so book your £10 pass at Quaytickets.com now

Also, a few other bits and pieces:

Vice magazine is back in town this Thursday, 24 April. This time it’s at Sankeys and the lineup features live sets from Metronomy, Operator Please and Lovvers (who I hear are great live) plus DJ sets from Friendly Fires, c90s, Autokratz, Evil 9, The oldboy, Contort Yourself. Tickets are free when you register over at Viceland.

Someone or other at Arts Council England wants you to vote on the country’s most musical city. Mark Radcliffe makes a good case for Manchester – but I think we should all vote for Leicester, which has produced such greats as Mark Morrison, Showaddywaddy and Engelbert Humperdinck. You can’t argue with quality like that.

And finally, bad news for Manchester independents as Mai Bai, the sushi cafe, and Roadkill Records, the Oldham Street record shop, both shut their doors. I was telling someone just last week about Roadkill’s mixtape exchange…