First Street Leisure
Manchester City Centre
What:
A culture-led regeneration phase of development – a “game changer” for First Street.
Why:
To ensure that First Street established the amenities, destination characteristics and sense of place critical to attracting further businesses to the estate.
How:
This phase created a new cultural and leisure destination for the city, the centrepiece of which is HOME. Attracting over 700,000 visitors every year, this footfall driver offers two theatres, five cinema screens, galleries, café bar and restaurant. Complementing this is the INNSIDE Hotel and nine retail/leisure units occupied by a range of operators including Sainsbury’s, Pizza Express, WOOD, Indian Tiffin Room, Starbucks, Gas Works, Bunny Jacksons, Vertigo and Junkyard Golf. The creation of Tony Wilson Place is a significant new outdoor performance and events space.
We created:
- HOME
- 4 * INNSIDE Hotel
- 9 retail and leisure units
- Tony Wilson Place, a new public square
- VITA Student
location
size
end value
public partner
Completion Date
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Project Updates
manchester jazz festival returns to First Street this May
Following the success of mjf at First Street last year, we are thrilled that we will once again be hosting the opening weekender between 17-19 May.
This FREE festival includes three event stages: Main Stage in Tony Wilson Place, Ask Garden Stage in James Grigor Square and HOME stage, each celebrating the breadth and individuality of mjf’s home-grown scene and beyond: bands emerging through their artist development programmes, alongside national and international talent, plus family-friendly activities and food & drink.
The full line up of artists performing at First Street include: Mangorata, Gaz Hughes Trio, Secret Night Gang, Maja Mannilla Trio, A Hologram Maze, Amy Gadiaga Quintet, Conor Michael & The GreensKeepers, Thanda Gumede & Friends, Atatu Trio, Hoda Jahanpour & Pedraum Agahi, Claire Victoria Roberts, Sonic Threads, Meilana Gillard: RBG Trio, m.oe, AJB3, Floorkin, Archipelego, Amy Thatcher & Francesca Knowles and the Jazz North Northern Line Showcase on Sunday 19 May, featuring: Ceitidh Mac, Bryony Jarman-Pinto, Dirty Freud, Tom Harris and Vipertime.
As well as some of the North’s leading artists gracing the Main Stage on Friday and Saturday (17 – 18 May), some of Greater Manchester’s 18-25 year-old bands from mjf’s Soundcheck talent development programme, and a selection of mjf Hothouse alumni artists, will perform on the Ask Garden Stage. On Sunday (19 May), mjf partners with Jazz North to present the Northern Line touring support scheme showcase: profiling five acts selected by industry leaders.
Spend summer at First Street
We are delighted to be working with HOME in bringing the First Street Festival to Tony Wilson Place from 2 June 2022.
First Street Festival will provide a range of free activities throughout June and July 2022, including live music, family events, drag performances, yoga, DJs and more. A central stage in Tony Wilson Place will form the focal point of the festival where all events will be free and open to the public.
HOME will programme and deliver the opening weekend (the Queen’s Jubilee weekend) and work with four partner organisations to curate the following weekends, allowing for a wide diversity of artists and voices, all uniquely part of the artistic community of Manchester, to take part over these weekends. This year’s partners are Brighter Sound, SM Music MGMT, All Hands on Deck, and The Untold Orchestra.
The weekends are:
2 – 5 June (HOME Opening Weekend)
10 – 12 June – Programmed by Brighter Sound
17 – 19 June – Programmed by SM Music MGMT
24 – 26 June – Programmed by All Hands on Deck
1-3 July June – Programmed by The Untold Orchestra
More details to follow soon.
‘Celebration’ at First Street
An ‘enchanting’ light installation has arrived at First Street this month as we welcome a group of life-sized polar bears. These custom-built sculptures will allow visitors to take in the magical atmosphere throughout the Christmas period and are a special backdrop to our extensive bar and restaurant offer.
The installation, named ‘Celebration’ has been created by local artist Lazerian and is installed at Tony Wilson Place. The naming of the installation derives from the definition, ‘a group of polar bears, brought together as a community by good food.’
We commissioned Denton based artist, Liam Hopkins aka Lazerian, in October to create the 5m long sculptures. The largest polar bear is 5m long, almost 2m wide and 2.5m tall with two smaller sculptures sitting alongside, and sparkling LED’s are attached to each structure.
The inspiration for the piece comes from the animals’ characteristics. Polar bears only tolerate others in proximity if there is a good food source nearby
Starting next year, First Street’s next office building will be net zero commercial space, underpinning our reputation for sustainability.
The Fire Garden
Presented by Walk the Plank and part of the Oxford Road Corridor of Light, Ask is delighted to partner with HOME on bringing The Fire Garden to First Street.
This outdoor family experience will encourage visitors to wander through a series of immersive fiery installations and see sculptural scenes of flames and foliage cast a golden glow around the specially adapted former Homeground site along the Oxford Road Corridor.
The free event runs on 22 and 23 October from 6pm-10pm.
Manchester Oktoberfest at First Street
Kicking off autumn here at First Street is Oktoberfest which is launching on 8 and 9 October then again running from 13-17 October on the former Homeground land. There are a number of different packages available and tickets for the event are highly sought-after so for details of how you can grab yours head to https://manchester-oktoberfest.co.uk/book-tickets/
A summer of festivals at First Street
A busy summer of events on the Homeground pop-up venue drew to a close at the weekend with the live music extravaganza, MCR Pride Live.
The event was part of the wider Manchester Pride Weekend celebrations and proved a smash hit with 10,000 revellers who packed the venue to watch stars including Zara Larsson, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Gabrielle perform.
The musical festival followed a successful summer for HOME’s pop-up outdoor initiative that saw people able to come together safely and enjoy a range of arts and cultural events across the summer months.
