Check Out Manchester’s Nightlife, Some of the Best in the World

Attracting swarms of raveheads to Manchester every year like moths to a pulsating strobe-light flame, the Warehouse Project is a musical mecca and by far Manchester’s most famous nightlife event, regularly ranking as one of the best and most exciting clubs in the world. Operating out of Depot Mayfield - a 10,000-capacity former railway yard that was breathed new life during a £1billion regeneration of Manchester city centre - part of this perennial excitement is in the club’s liminality, which runs on a unique seasonal basis between the start of the student year in September and New Years Eve, when the Project will run a colossal all-night long blowout spectacular which remains one of the most anticipated events of each year’s global club calendar. Annie Mac, Rudimental, and Fatboy Slim rank among the club’s previous New Years guests.

Warehouse Project was launched in 2006 by local entrepreneurs Sam Kendall and Sacha Lord, who are also responsible for launching the city’s equally-famous summer Parklife Festival in 2010 (guests have included Two Door Cinema Club, Snoop Dogg, Frank Ocean, and The 1975). Raised on and inspired by the Mancunian rave scene of the ‘90s, the duo inaugurated Warehouse Project at the disused Boddington Brewery in Strangeways before moving to a former air raid shelter under Manchester Piccadilly station as the noise began disturbing inmates at the Strangeway Prison. Following a decade-long stint in this subterranean safe haven, which even then was attracting an annual average of 100,000 people and names such as New Order, The Chemical Brothers, and Calvin Harris, Warehouse Project relocated temporarily to the Victoria Warehouse in Trafford before settling into its present Depot location in 2019. The venue’s debut season line-up starred the likes of Aphex Twin, Disclosure, Chase & Status, and Skepta and sold out its tickets twelve weeks in advance.

After a two-year dormancy in the midst of the COVID19 pandemic, Depot roared back to life come September 2022, welcoming, to name a few, hometown rave icons Happy Mondays, genre-defying music producer Jamie XX, industrial-techno heavyweight I Hate Models, and South Korean deep-house sensation Peggy Gou. The Warehouse Project is a monumental shrine to electronic music and brings the industry’s biggest names to one of the biggest venues in the world every season, making it unmissable for those visiting Manchester to pursue the nighttime hedonism that has made the city famous. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime clubbing experience.

The Warehouse Project is a seasonal event, so if you’re in Manchester during its off-season between January and September you’re unlikely to be able to attend (save the occasional off-season events they also run). However, Manchester does offer several year-round electronic-music alternatives for those still wanting to indulge in pulsating beats and strobes during their staff. The White Hotel is one of the UK’s most exciting electronic clubs, located just opposite the Warehouse Project’s former haunt in Strangeways. It specialises in avant-garde performance and underground sounds, so be sure to check out their full range of events on Resident Advisor before attending. Hidden at Downtex Mill, meanwhile, offers a more mainstream electronic sound out of a multi-room converted warehouse on the city’s edge. It hosts a weekly Thursday club night as well as the city’s famous monthly Teletech raves and other one-off events. Past Hidden guests include Australian house guru Mall Grab, Berlin’s self-described ‘nu gabber post techno punk’ duo Brutalismus 3000, lofi-synth sensation Ross from Friends, and transgressive, ballroom-inspired DJ-provocateur LSDXOXO.

Canal Street, located in the heart of the city, is one of the most famous gay villages in the world and is an indelible slice of Manchester’s social history, long considered a global beacon of queer rights, inclusivity, and community. The area first developed with the construction of the Rochdale Canal (from which it takes its name) in 1804, a vital trade artery in the emergent industrial megapolis that, at its peak, produced 30% of the world’s cotton. However, when the cotton industry stalled with the onset of the American Civil War and the emancipation struggles of the 1860s across the Atlantic, the Rochdale Canal and the commercial areas it fed evaporated, leaving behind deserted areas of tragic urban decay. Such desertion was quickly exploited by those seeking to escape conventional society’s purview, including queer folk and sex workers, leading to the development of an inchoate red-light district along Canal Street, which included the opening of the New Union pub and hotel at the intersection of Canal and Princess Streets, inaugurated in 1865 for a clandestine gay-male clientele and still in operation today.

Hostile homophobic policing in the midst of the HIV crisis under James Anderton, the infamous Chief Constable of Greater Manchester who accused gay men of “swirling in a cesspit of their own making” when asked about the progression of the illness in the city, subjected the area to mounting pressure in the 1980s as queer spaces became subject to regular raids. However, the community was undeterred.The first Manchester Pride Festival was launched on Canal Street in 1985, a small charity event raising money for those affected by HIV while, in 1990, a proud and openly gay club named Manto opened on the street in defiance of Anderton, who stepped down the following year. From there the village’s reputation grew exponentially: by the end of the ‘90s it had featured on Channel 4-favourite Queer as Folk and was recognised by the Manchester City Council as a protected area. Meanwhile, Manchester Pride, held annually on the August bank holiday weekend, has since become one of the largest pride festivals in Europe, raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for LGBTQ+ charities in the local area every year. Other annual events include Sparkle, the city’s national transgender celebration weekend in July, and fetish/tribe events such as the Great British Bear Bash during the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Canal Street today welcomes both queer and straight clientele and is one of Manchester’s most popular nightlife spots, almost overflowing with bars and clubs to choose from, most open every night of the week. G-A-Y is maybe the most recognisable bar thanks to its sister location in London and offers free entry and an all-night dance floor to the sound of chart classics, while Bar Pop boasts dangerously cheap drinks and regular drag events to kick off the night. Then, we recommend heading to Cruz 101, the Village’s largest and most reputed club, or, on Tuesday nights, ‘Filthy Gorgeous’, the city’s award-winning LGBTQ+ student night hosted by drag collective Haus of Filth, runs out of Brewers Club. But, on any given night you can simply follow the rainbow flags to end up at what promises to be an epic night out. 

Manchester is truly a city with something to cater to everybody’s nocturnal tastes, each area offering something slightly different If you want to immerse yourself in the alt/indie music scenes that made the city famous, we have written a dedicated guide to Manchester’s music venues and an action-packed itinerary to a musical weekend in the city for you to discover, however there are several city-centre clubs that offer unmissable indie tunes to help you Dance Yrself Clean. FAC251 is open every night of the weekend except Sunday and advertises itself as the spiritual successor to the Hacienda, operating across three themed floors out of the former offices of Factory Records. Meanwhile, 42nd Street Nightclub (known locally as ‘42s’) is the nationally-famous student favourite, open five nights a week and with criminally cheap drinks. Free-entry indie nights can also be found at venues such as YES or Deaf Institute throughout the week, so it is worth checking their websites to see what’s on! And, if you fancy something a bit more headbang-y, Satans Hollow is the city’s edgier rock/metal club, located just off Canal Street.

The Northern Quarter offers a slightly hipper, more bohemian vibe, with several fun concept bars and hybrid nightlife spaces, such as Crazy Pedro’s, a pizza parlour with a full-time cocktail bar; NQ64, which has a fully decked-out retro gaming arcade; and Twenty Twenty Two, filled to the brim with ping pong tables. Ancoats and Spinningfields are the more upmarket picks and offer a classier, more reserved atmosphere, while Deansgate Locks is the eclectic, waterfront student hive which promises cheap alcohol, loud tunes, and at least one spilled drink! Lastly, Salford, just beyond the city limits and home to the aforementioned Hidden at Downtex Mill and White Hotel, has become Manchester's de facto rave space and offers a night with a grimier, more underground feel. Head here to experience something a bit different, but be sure to pre at Adelphi Lad’s Club for its spectacular beer garden.