Festival team to open brand new Northern Quarter venue

A brand new venue is being opened in Manchester’s Northern Quarter by the team behind the award wining Kendal Calling and Bluedot festivals.

The venue is called 33 Oldham Street and is being led by Andy Smith, one of the founders of the award-winning Kendal Calling, Off the Record and Bluedot festivals.

He is launching the venture alongside partner Jason McGuire of Manchester Coffee, who is often spotted manning the machines at the nomadic Tim Peaks Cafe.

The venue will house three stunningly designed floors to explore.

The atmosphere will be centred around a love of music with a focus on all day dining, evening drinks and events.

The new venue will include a coffee shop, workspace, lounge, screening room and roof terraces, all designed to be as suited for daytime sandwiches as it is for Saturday-night cocktails.

The ground floor will be a coffee shop by day which will turn into a sleek cocktail bar in the evenings.

Inspired by Japan’s famed omakase joints, the first floor listening room is inspired by the intimate jazz cafés and vinyl bars found in Tokyo since the 1950s.

The stylish but comfortable lounge will be a workspace by day and chic bar by night, seeing an impressive sound system based around the MB2SE speakers taking centre stage.

Designed by Grammy-award winning record producer Steve Levine, whose credits include, Culture Club, The Beach Boys, and Motörhead, the room is as acoustically perfect as a state of the art recording studio.

It will be used to provide the best possible experience for the curated musical programme that includes weekly ‘selector’ sessions showcasing the exploratory side of a DJ’s record collection, album listening parties, artist takeovers, radio broadcasts and ‘in conversation’ Q&As’.

With newly restored arch window overlooking Oldham Street, the second floor is home to a comfortable, stylish creative space and lounge, echoing that of a members club, without the membership fee.

Table service across all floors will be available via the use of a downloadable phone app, enabling customers to both order and pay for food and drink service at their tables.

The fourth floor – coming in 2019 – will be the largest roof terrace in the Northern Quarter, and a sun trap all year round.

Andy Smith said “33 Oldham Street brings together everything I love about the Northern Quarter and adds some extra touches I’ve fallen for elsewhere.

“It should be the kind of space you pop in for ten minutes and leave five hours later – we want people to come to here because it’s special all the time, and free to get in.

“The festivals are amazing but take a whole year to plan and then, boom, suddenly they’re over. I’m really excited that this gives a space to curate the whole year through.”