Either Manchester International Festival is taking a liberal approach to announcing this year’s programme, or someone’s jumped the gun:

07-18-2009 20:00

MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

Dave Haslam presents

And all they had to do was hold out until the press launch at Manchester Art Gallery on 19 March!

Anyway, this could be good… at least we know that Haslam is as pro-Manchester as you’ll get – unlike Rufus Wainwright, who’s having a good go at making Manchester feel well and truly second best. He’s not exactly talking up his opera-writing skills either, is he? And he’s not even sure that it won’t be a disaster.

July looks set to be a fun month!

Here’s a simple but great idea: get more young people into theatres by offering them thousands of free tickets.

I was just at the Royal Exchange buying tickets for True Love Lies when the box officer asked if I was 25 or under. Though I couldn’t lie (I did consider it), he told me about A Night Less Ordinary, a nationwide scheme that launched on Sunday.

They have 50 completely free tickets to give away for each performance of Brad Fraser’s play until 20 February, and then for whatever’s on in the Theatre every Friday – that works out at 10,000 tickets available over the scheme’s two-year duration. And there are two further initiatives: The Guestlist, which is offers a season ticket plus talks, workshops and tours, and The First Stage education programme. The deadline is Thursday so visit the Royal Exchange site now.

A Night Less Ordinary also covers the Library Theatre, Contact, Oldham Coliseum, The Met in Bury and the Bolton Octagon in our immediate area – plus theatres in Halifax, Huddersfield, Liverpool, Stoke-on-Trent. Here’s the full list.

Nope, not of the soppy variety. And in fact I’m bypassing the whole event myself by heading out to Hebden Bridge to see Denis Jones play at the launch a new quarterly folk night. If you’re in Manchester, however, there are a couple of interesting things going on tomorrow…

The first is at the Royal Exchange, where Brad Fraser’s True Love Lies is in the middle of its world premiere run. The play – ‘think Six Feet Under meets My Family’ – is gaining nothing but very favourable reviews. It’s on until 21 February and tickets are priced £8.50 to £29.

The other is taking place at Nexus Art Cafe on Dale Street in the Northern Quarter. From 10am right through to 7pm, the place is being transformed into a ‘Wagamama-esque banquet hall’ in order to create ‘a space to meet brand spanking new people and make brand spanking new friends’. I read somewhere that they’re also getting a piano in, for one night only.

The other hugely important Valentine’s Day-related news is that over at Rainy City Stories we’ve picked a winner for our love story contest! It’s called The Shortest, The Coldest and it’s written by first-time writer Craig Melville. There were five finalists in total – and I’m very pleased because my three favourites (from the 56 stories and poems submitted) made that shortlist. Check them out here.

[Lovely badges courtesy of www.koolbadges.co.uk]

Nope, this isn’t a national version of Risk. Cube gallery and the Redeye photography network (plus Marketing Manchester and DLA Piper) want you to capture the city in the photographic sense.

The incentive is one of 10 awards of £500 (one of which will be decided by the People), plus the chance to have your images displayed in Cube on Portland Street from 28 March until 9 April. In fact, every submitted image – ‘so long as it’s legal and decent’ (in terms of quality or nakedness, I wonder) – will be exhibited, which is a great extra incentive to enter. You’ve only got one entry though so don’t waste it.

The 10 winners will also have their photographs reproduced and distributed throughout the city as postcards, and they’ll receive limited edition prints in a commemorative book.

The competition’s open to both professionals and non-professionals, and the deadline’s fast approaching: Friday 20 February. See the Capture Manchester website for full details.

[Hat-tip to How-Do]