Beck’s Fusions isn’t Manchester’s first corporate-sponsored arts festival, nor will it be the last. But this one is notable for the line-up the mediocre lager brand has assembled. Headlined by Massive Attack, the Bristol trip-hoppers who haven’t played in Manchester since 2003, other highlights include New York’s Hercules and Love Affair (minus Anthony ‘and the Johnsons’ Hegarty), Sydney’s the Presets and Philadelphia’s Santogold.

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 site’s been getting literally tens of hits from people trying to find out who won at last night’s Best of Manchester Awards ceremony. Here’s what you’re looking for:

Music: Richard Cheetham, High Voltage
Fashion: Simon Buckley, Rags to Bitches
Art: Naomi Kashiwagi, conceptual artist

So I scored precisely 1 from 3 with my random predictions, which fits well probability-wise.

I didn’t make it to Urbis last night but it was apparently very busy, with live music from Gideon Conn, Kid British and Keith. The awards were presented by Claire Lomax (fashion), Luke Bainbridge (music) and Peter Saville (art).

There were also three special commendation awards made earlier this week - to Naeem Bawany for club photography, Christopher Gray for commercial design, Liam Hopkins for product design and Daniel Clark for the Manchester-based label and boutique, Junk Shop.

The Best of Manchester exhibition, featuring samples from all nine shortlisted entrants, is now open at Urbis until 28 September.

Mancubist is pretty music-centric at the moment, which I’ll aim to address in the coming weeks, but in the meantime here are a couple more events that I’d recommend this weekend:

Saturday night welcomes this month’s instalment of Helen Of Troy Does Countertop Dancing - or HOTDCD, to shave off a couple of milliseconds. Named after this poem by feminist writer Margaret Atwood, the clubnight features a suitably female-heavy playlist, ‘from Patti Smith and Janis Joplin to PJ Harvey, The Ting Tings and M.I.A’.

The night, which teamed up with the like-minded Girls on Film network in April, runs from 10pm until late at Charlie’s Nightclub on Harter Street and returns on the second Saturday of each month. Join them on Facebook and follow their new blog, Helen Of Troy Does Countertop Writings, which they aim to update twice weekly.

Then on Sunday Islington Mill in Salford hosts an eight-hour music marathon culminating in a set by psychedelic Japanese band Acid Mothers Temple and The Cosmic Inferno (it’s obviously The Weekend For Things With Long Names…). This ‘psyche-fi all-dayer’ also features Vienna’s Primordial Undermind and a bunch of well-fitting local bands, with tickets priced at just £8.

The Guardian seems to love mentioning ‘The’ Islington Mill, by the way - they’ve recently referred to it as an ‘alt.lifestyle commune’ and ‘Andy Warhol’s Factory meets Coronation Street’.

The Royal Exchange Theatre has been running a nice little alternative to the standard Friday night post-work pub visit for a while now. They’ve been putting on free, wide-ranging showcases in their bar - from jazz to comedy to ‘poetry bingo’ to cookery lessons.

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.

The shortlist for this year’s celebration of all things Manchester was announced last week, and it contains some familiar and (for me at least) not-so-familiar names:

Music:

• Richard Cheetham, who runs the successful High Voltage bands night and monthly fanzine, and is also the booking manager for Night & Day Cafe
• Duncan Sime, aka Red Deer Club, which started out as a great folk night and now continues as a label and DJing guise
• Jasper Wilkinson, part of multimedia collective I Am Your Autopilot, which ‘blends hard-edged electronica with choral sounds, using synthesizers, guitar and multi-layered harmonies’
• Random tip to win: Duncan Sime

Fashion:

• Simon Buckley, co-owner of Tib Street vintage boutique Rags to Bitches (with wife Flic Everett)
• Nabil El-Nayal, recent winner of the Womenswear Award the Graduate Fashion Week 2008
• Hasan Hejazi, who shoots for YQ magazine among others
• Random tip: Nabil El-Nayal

Art:

• Paul Harfleet, who is behind the innovative council flat-based Apartment exhibition space
• Naomi Kashiwagi, shortlisted for ||: Repetition :||, Fugue No.1 in QWERTY for 8 Typewriters, ‘a music and text score composed for typewriters’
• Jai Redman, creative director of UHC (which I’ve written about before) and creator of the Thin Veneer of Democracy, a 16-foot table decorated with a ‘power map’ of Manchester’s corporate and political movers and shakers
• Random tip: Naomi Kashiwagi

More information is available on the Best of Manchester blog and works by the nine shortlisted entrants will be displayed at Urbis from Friday.

The winners, each receiving £2,000  and a tailored professional development package, will be announced at a ceremony at Urbis on Thursday evening.