Good news: May is a huge one for gigs, club nights, and a tentative few of the first festivals of the season. There’s a much-loved folk singer songwriter coming to YES, Aussie alternative rock behemoths at the Co-op and bona fide electronic pioneers come to an almost bafflingly intimate venue.
Club fans are well-served too, with a bank holiday session at IDRA from an iconic DJ duo. Festival fans also have to opportunity to gallivant up and down Salford’s Chapel Street for Sounds From The Other City, and the painfully cool No Art festival comes to Bolesworth Castle, which we are claiming as ‘local enough’, because we’re excited.
Here are the best gigs and club nights in Manchester next month….
Pictish Trail
Pictish Trail is the alias of Johnny Lynch, an influential figure in the UK’s DIY music scene, now set to play a live show at The Pink Room in YES. Based on the incredibly remote Scottish island Eigg, he blends lo-fi folk with warped electronics and psych-pop, creating songs that feel both intimate and expansive. A founder of Fence Records and head of Lost Map Records, Lynch has built a reputation for championing experimental, collaborative music. His latest tour celebrates new album Life Slime.
ANNO: Four Seasons by Anna Meredith & Antonio Vivaldi
The Hallé is bringing Anna Meredith’s striking rework of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to Manchester, turning the familiar into something far moodier, more immersive and entirely of its own. ANNO compresses a full year into one continuous hour of music, blending orchestral fragments with electronics, near-darkness and animated visuals for a performance that feels as much like an installation as a concert.
SlapFunk & Animal Crossing – An Inner City Festival
The May Bank Holiday Sunday usually signals a shift in the city’s energy, and for 2026, the local heads at Animal Crossing are doubling down on that reputation. They’ve teamed up once again with Dutch powerhouse SlapFunk for another edition of their Inner City Festival, taking over the industrial sprawl of Progress. Expect sets from a stellar crew, including Shanti Celeste, Laidlaw, Mella Dee, Dan Ghenacia and Dyed Soundorom.
Sounds From The Other City
Sounds From The Other City returns to Salford for its 21st instalment, with more than 100 artists playing across 17 stages, taking over everything from churches and galleries to brutalist halls and beloved independent venues. With names including Lynks, Moonchild Sanelly, DJ Haram, Blue Bendy, Rainy Miller and jasmine.4.t, plus day-and-night programming from the likes of Now Wave, Band On The Wall, Reform Radio and Brume, it’s shaping up to be another chaotic bank holiday wander through the best new music around.
The Utopia Strong
The Utopia Strong return with a rare Manchester show, this time in the atmospheric surroundings of Hallé St Peters, diving into improvised, psychedelic soundscapes shaped by modular and analogue synths. Fresh from releasing Doperider last year, their trippiest record yet, the trio of current Gong frontman Kavus Torabi, multi-instrumentalist Michael J. York and, yes, Steve Davis, the six-time world snooker champion and turned synth wizard, bring a truly otherworldly live experience, with Sprechen Cinema DJs setting the mood throughout the night.
Skinshape
William Dorey’s Skinshape project heads to Manchester with a five-piece live band, turning his 60s and 70s-inspired blend of funk, reggae, psychedelic rock and library music into a full-bodied, groove-heavy live show. With roots in crate-dug soul and dub, and a catalogue spanning old favourites and newer material, it is one for anyone who likes their rhythms warm, hazy and built to move to.
Tame Impala
Tame Impala celebrate the release of their fifth full-length album Deadbeat with a huge UK tour. The Aussie psychedelic project of multi-instrumentalist Kevin Parker, with hits like Let It Happen, Elephant and Lost In Yesterday, will take to the stage at Co-op Live on 8 May 2026.
Kruder & Dorfmeister
In the mid-90s, the K&D Sessions, released on the peerless Studio K7, effectively became the blueprint for electronic music that felt just as at home in a smoky living room as it did on a world-class sound system. Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister are the undisputed masters of the ‘Viennese sound’, a blend of smoked-out trip-hop, jazz-infused dub, and bossa nova that managed to define an entire era without ever feeling dated. Their rare Manchester appearances are always treated with a certain level of reverence by those who spent a significant portion of the last three decades chasing that specific brand of horizontal euphoria.
ZAYN: The Konnakol Tour!
While his former 1D bandmates have spent the last few years racking up frequent flyer miles on the global arena circuit, ZAYN has famously taken a more reclusive approach to life as a solo artist. That makes the announcement of The Konnakol Tour! particularly significant. It’s a rare opportunity to see one of the UK’s most distinct vocalists outside of a recording studio, bringing his blend of moody R&B and experimental pop to the scales of the AO Arena on 12 May, heralding the release of his fifth studio album.
The Bug Club
The Bug Club make the everyday sound a lot more exciting than it has any right to, transforming small details and dry humour into playful garage rock. Formed in 2016 in Monmouthshire, the trio of Sam Willmett, Tilly Harris and Dan Matthew were quickly picked up by Bingo Records, then released their first single, We Don’t Need Room For Lovin’, in 2021, followed by a run of releases that quickly carved out their unique creative world. They come to Manchester to play the The Eagle Inn – as guests of the ever-sharp NOW WAVE.
M.O.P.: 25th Anniversary of Warriorz
Few tracks in hip-hop history are as rowdy as Ante Up. That’s just a fact. Twenty-five years since the release of Warriorz, the Brooklyn duo of Billy Danze and Lil’ Fame are heading to New Century Hall to prove that their brand of high-octane, aggressive rap hasn’t aged a day. This isn’t a nostalgic lap of honour; it’s a heavy-duty reminder of why M.O.P. remain one of the most respected names in the game, backed by the kind of raw energy that usually requires a riot shield.
Wally Badarou
A rare chance to see this legend of funk and jazz not just in Manchester, but anywhere. Synth pioneer and one of the in-house session team working at the legendary Compass Point studios (appearing with the likes of Sly & Robbie, Grace Jones, Robert Palmer, Gwen Guthrie and Tom Tom Club), Wally Badarou also produced Fela Kuti and was famously sampled by Massive Attack on Daydreaming, one of the seminal tracks from Blue Lines. Oh, and he was in Level 42. A stunning career, his Colours of Silence and Simple Things albums were recently brought back into re-issue by Manchester’s own Be With Records, so expect a dedicated crowd for this show at The Yard.
The Age of Consent
Bronski Beat’s seminal album The Age of Consent returns in a powerful new live version, reimagined by ground-breaking queer and trans artists including Planningtorock, Tom Rasmussen and Bishi. Backed by The Chateau Collective, they’ll take on era-defining tracks like Smalltown Boy and Why, turning one of British pop’s most radical records into a celebration of queer culture, solidarity and the fight that’s far from over.
Kiefer Sutherland
While the world knows him best as Jack Bauer or a particularly menacing vampire, Kiefer Sutherland has spent the last decade working quite hard to ensure we take his music career just as seriously. It’s a transition that many actors struggle with (*cough* Billy-Bob) but Sutherland has managed to carve out a genuine space in the country-rock circuit. His sound is rooted in the gritty, dusty storytelling of the Americana tradition, delivered with a gravel-flecked baritone that sounds like it’s seen its fair share of late nights and cheap whiskey.
Fcukers
The NYC trio Fcukers have spent the last year becoming the worst-kept secret in the underground, reviving a specific brand of indie-sleaze that feels less like a nostalgic trip and more like a necessary intervention. It is club music for people who still like the dirt of a live basement show, blending low-slung house beats with the nonchalant, deadpan delivery of front-woman Shanny Wise. Following a string of chaotic, high-energy sets across the festival circuit, they are making their way to the sprung dancefloor of New Century Hall. Expecting a standard live performance is a mistake; their shows lean closer to a continuous DJ set punctuated by live instrumentation and an indifferent, cool-girl attitude.
Kraftwerk
There’s only a handful of bands that can truly claim to have been at the nucleus of an entire genre. The men machines of Kraftwerk are one of them. Without them, we might not have the worldwide club and dance music culture we have today, such was the reverence held for their robot music in Detroit and Chicago, where such things were forged. Led by founder Ralf Hütter, they return to the UK for first time since their 2017 tour, playing selections from classic albums including Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express and The Man-Machine. Using state-of-the-art graphics and visuals – as they have always done – this will be a true spectacle. Don’t miss it.
Somewhere Soul x MJF
London DJ and Somewhere Soul founder Josh Mason-Quinn brings his globally minded selections to Manchester, blending jazz fusion, psychedelic soul and Afro-funk into a set built for proper heads and curious listeners alike. With a following of over a million music fans and sold-out live shows behind him, he’s all about discovery, deep cuts and expanding your horizons on the dancefloor.
Sasha & John Digweed
Few partnerships in electronic music carry as much weight as Sasha & John Digweed. The duo, who defined the progressive house sound first at Renaissance, and then during their legendary residency at Twilo (and latterly through the seminal Northern Exposure mixes), are returning to Manchester for a bank holiday session that skips the usual 90-minute festival sprint in favour of a proper four-hour set. It’s a rare opportunity to see two masters of the craft getting stuck in.
No Art Festival
No Art is heading out of the city and into the grounds of Bolesworth Castle – not far from Chester – for what’s set to be the party brand’s biggest UK open-air show to date. Taking place on Saturday 30 May, the one-day festival has been curated by Dutch duo ANOTR and marks the first time a No Art open-air event outside the Netherlands has expanded into a full two-stage format. That means a bigger site, more room for large-scale production and installations, and a line-up that stretches from scene leaders to serious underground names.
Read more:
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Help raise money for late Stone Roses legend Mani
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