Hello Elektronauts! My partner and I are moving from the US to Manchester in August, and we were wondering what kinds of local scenes and venues we could find there. I saw a similar post about a similar topic recently, so I figured I’d ask you friendly people for advice! We are very open to pretty much any kind of scene (except like danger music, but who knows it might be cool with the right people) with the only exception that venues have to be wheelchair accessible (although this requirement could soon change!) It would also be cool to find some places to jam with others (traditional instrumental music or synth based jams are both appreciated).
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Become Liverpool fans.
They’ve got a whole lot of events that take place there too. Manchester is a pretty hip place, minus the footy.
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Hacienda
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Didn’t that close in 97? Certainly a photo op trip though. Like going to 206 South Jefferson Street in Chicago.
There are plenty of venues both big and small for concerts, performances etc. Also several theatres that cater to slightly different crowds. Always good to check their schedules for upcoming things.
Hacienda (the original one) is just a block of apartments now, but the canal it runs along offers a nice route on days with nice weather.
There are some scenes, but with so many students and people who moved in from other cities some of these escape me. There are wrestling events, music events (as opposed to concerts), board game stores that have open days, comic book stores and a few conventions for comics/manga, motorbikes, industry conventions etc through the year. There are a few museums, and I suggest always being on the lookout for small art shows and exhibitions that pop up from time to time.
A lot of what made Manchester interesting has been lost lately imo as the city is engulfed with overpriced apartments, and I often tell people you’d struggle to hear a Mancunian accent in the city centre lately. But as it turns into a mini London, there are more restaurants etc popping up everywhere.
One good thing is that with a lot of redevelopment I’d say accessibility isn’t too bad compared to other places I’ve lived and visited. Not perfect but certainly not terrible. I’d expect most bigger venues/cinemas etc to present no serious problems.
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Are you moving to the city centre or out of the centre? Once you get out of the city centre its quite a different place. The boundaries have become stretched in terms of development with areas like the northern quarter that used to be called New Cross and bits of Ancoats being subsumed in terms of development/apartments etc. The south Manchester suburbs have always attracted students which in turn has led to more bars and venues. They tend to be around the Oxford Road corridor. I’ve had friends who came to Manchester 20 odd years ago and have never been to the north/east of the city as they’re based around Didsbury/Withington/Chorlton. I’ve also got mates who’ve never been to chorlton or didsbury. If you include the city centre I’d say it’s a tale of three cities. The south, the centre and the north/east and they’re all very different culturally and economically
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This is probably one of the most important aspects of the city to know, and one which a lot of people overlook I think.
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Dig out some of the Brass Band gigs (this is a superb one Glossop Old Band, current best are Yorkshire and I love Grimethorpe Colliery Band (https://grimethorpeband.co.uk), work of Nigel Fielding (ex sop player) superb. Close harmony, punchy bass, tight tight rhythm and totally different to anything you might have heard in the US.
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Used to live there - wait - 12 years ago! (shit)
It probably changed a lot
Make sure to visit Afflecks Palace: https://afflecks.com/
I don’t know what it’s like now but there used to be cool indie shops and a good atmosphere there
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Oh and also the ironically named Deaf Institute
(I think it used to be an actual Deaf Institute but it was turned into a pretty cool music venue)
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It seems Band on the Wall still exists as well 
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Salford Quays and Salford are not the same thing.
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Also, the Warehouse Project normally start their programme about September time
This place always feels like on of the last real nightclubs in Manchester; rougher part of town, feels like middle of nowhere even though it’s minutes from the centre, housed in an old car garage (the bar was the inspection pit where punters used to fall into, now plexiglassed over), but it’s the real deal. Unlike places in the centre, there are no noise abatement orders for this place as it’s at the arse end of an industrial area, no apartments around. So it’s loud and ofetn stays open til 7, 8, 9am. A gem of a shithole with amazing people and visiting artists and djs. Go while places like this canstill exist.
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I can vouch for the place, proper old school shithouse club. Not many of them left.
Had one of the best nights of my life in there.
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The White Hotel is where I’d be going if I was 20 years younger and could keep my eyes open after 11 
sort of reminds me of some of the older Skam nights.
Totally agree with the feel across areas, and there’s definitely big differences which is interesting considering the scale compared to larger cities. I live 3-4 miles from the centre and rarely go into other areas. The place has changed a lot over the years and there’s a lot more investment been pumped into the place since the Manchester IRA bombing in 96 (which has it’s positives and negatives). The house prices are increasing and the prices are getting like London. Having said that’s there’s still loads to do, but like any by product of gentrification there are qualities you lose that once made a place what it was.
I think what’s interesting are the recent changes in Stockport, a town/area 8 miles from the centre.
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Thank you all so much for the replies!! Sounds like there’s definitely a lot of stuff to find, and I’m excited to be in a new scene altogether.
My partner will be working on a PhD at the University of Manchester, so that’s more or less the area where we’ll be located. I think that’s closer to the city center (I’ll eventually learn to spell that word properly at some point 
). I was also curious how car dependent the city center is?
There’s a pretty decent Tram system and lots of local busses with good links to airport, hospitals, universities etc. As far as I’m aware there’s not any sort of congestion charges (yet) on cars entering the city centre. Plenty of pedestrianised areas in the very centre but, like all British cities, can be quite a lot of traffic at peak times and almost constant roadworks going on somewhere important.
You don’t need a car to get about, but if you have one, you won’t have to pay lots of charges (yet) to drive it about.
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Thank you!
Do you (or anyone!!!) also know if the sidewalks are relatively accessible for wheelchair users (e.g. flat, relatively wide, ramps that lead on/off the sidewalk)? That’s something my current city didn’t seem to consider…