It was inevitable really. Set up an exclusive, expensive festival for the arts and a low-budget alternative will soon follow. I suggested as much back in November, and Gareth McCann has since come up with the ingeniously simple name: Not Manchester International Festival:

If every event that happens in Manchester from 29 June to 15 July carries our web address on all its promo material then everyone who’s looking will know where to go to find out everything else that’s happening. And what’s more, everyone who’s putting something on will be promoting not just themselves but everyone else who’s putting something on. So it’s not just great publicity but good karma too.

Gareth was motivated to set this fringe of sorts up after a play he’d written, Lovers Talk, wasn’t commissioned by MIF, meaning no publicity boost for its premiere (Britons Protection, 29 June).

Other promoters have already signed up - including the likes of I’m so Indie (my band wouldn’t play Manchester International Festival even if they asked, which they haven’t) at Dry Bar and the Castle pub on Oldham Street, which will host 20 bands in two days.

Not Manchester International Festival has received coverage on Manchester Confidential and Gareth has started a blog and set up a Myspace too. Good luck to him.

To be honest, it’s not very often that I give much consideration to writing about gardening - grass is for sitting or running around on, and flowers just make me sneeze - but this one’s a little different:

A nightime, participative, artist-led expedition where a decrepit urban area is subversively rejuvenated through community gardening. In association with the National Wildflower Centre, this event is led by artist Jason Minsky and will transform the way in which participants think about who owns public space.

Guerrrilla gardening begins at 6pm next Thursday, 3 May, in Urbis. It’s then open daily, Monday to Sunday, 10am until 6pm.

I haven’t got a clue what it’s about, but you can read the Wiki or visit sites like GuerrilaGardening.org and Primal Seeds for more information.

[Hat-tip to TheArtGuide]

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.

I spent my Easter weekend up in Scotland, where ‘gloriously hot’ seems to translates into overcast skies and wind strong enough to knock you over the harbour wall.

On the plus side, Scotland implemented a smoking ban in public places last March, meaning a quiet drink in the local no longer results in stinking clothes. Wales joined in with the ban at the start of this month and England finally follows suit on July 1.

As a non-smoker I can’t wait, but I do wonder how others will cope. Which bars and clubs in Manchester, for example, will be particularly hit by the ban? Britons Protection? Tiger Lounge? The Star & Garter?

I hear a similar ban in Spain is failing miserably at the moment because many places are allowed to choose whether to enforce it. Those that do are losing all their custom, while those that don’t are filled with large crowds of happy smokers.

It had to happen, didn’t it? One of Manchester’s most famous landmarks is placed under threat - someone starts an online petition.

Over 4,000 signatures in little over a month is impressive going, and gives some indication of how precious the place is to many. My post on Mancubist has attracted 15 comments too:

Manchester will be like any other city without it.

It is closing on the 16th June I’ve heard.

Well, if it’s one less place for poseurs to congregate it can’t be all that bad!

And via the fancy new search function on the MEN site, here’s the latest:

The future of Manchester’s Afflecks Palace looks brighter with a new lease proposal on the table. Bosses from the Northern Quarter shopping emporium have met advisers to discuss terms after the contract expires in June.

Bruntwood managing director Chris Oglesby dismissed fears that the building could be turned into luxury apartments. He said: “Our intention is not to redevelop the Afflecks building. But we cannot make any firm assurances.”