'In The City' Hits Town

Hot on the heels of the Labour Party Conference, the annual In The City music event takes over the Midland Hotel from 5th-7th October. ‘Music Event’ is about the best I can do in describing In the City, I’m afraid, because it’s a bit of a weird one. During the day, us mere mortals wouldn’t really know there was anything going on as In The City hosts a sort of conference, with ‘industry leaders debating the present and plotting the future’. In other words, they all get together for a big, exclusive shindig/piss up that none of us are invited to.

The evenings, however, do provide something for the rest of us as In the City proves its worth by bringing in some decent live music, spread across a number of venues throughout Manchester. This year’s line up is headed by The Fratellis at The Academy but the real beauty of these three days are the hundreds of unsigned bands that flock in to try and impress the aforementioned ‘industry leaders’ as well as hoping to add some of you lovely people to their fan bases.

There is a lot of stuff going on in venues ranging from the live music mecca of Night and Day to the perhaps more surprising Walkabout, and if you’re careful you should be able to skip your way around a never ending run of free gigs. As with all these things, I suspect there may be a little more chaff than wheat, but give it a few hours hanging around in an obscure Northern Quarter bar and you may just discover yourself the next Oasis. That’s what I’ll be doing...I’ll let you know how I get on.