Ideas wanted for world’s first user-generated event

Mancunians are invited to come up with inspirational ideas for the world’s first user-generated day of events on Saturday 20 June in Ancoats in east Manchester.

Cutting Room Experiment will be an afternoon of activities where every event has been created out of an idea from members of the public.

Very different ‘flash mob’ style events will take place on the hour every hour and hundreds of people will be able take part in the activities, which could range from 100 people playing violins at once, to a mass poetry reading.

The event will take place in a new public square called Cutting Room next to St Peter’s Church and will be funded by regeneration bodies, the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and New East Manchester, the public sector organisations behind the area’s transformation over the past 10 years. The NWDA has invested £72m into Ancoats and funded Cutting Room as part of this investment.

The name of this newly created square, just off Great Ancoats Street and next to St Peter’s Church, comes from the rich heritage of the textile industry in this district in the late 18th and 19th century. This outdoor space was where large swathes of material were cut out.

Cutting Room Experiment is being held to celebrate the completion of the new square and to mark the landmark of ten years’ regeneration activity taking place in Ancoats.

Got questions? Want to know more? Well, you’re in luck. Organiser Jon is inviting curious bloggers down to the Bay Horse on Thursday May 21 at 6:30pm for what may be Manchester’s first ever ‘blog launch’, constituting a chat about the event and a free pint.