Join us on 8 August 2026 for a special screening of Raise The Bar: From The Ground Up, documenting three years of building community, creating opportunities and championing grassroots talent across Manchester’s urban music scene.

Alongside the screening, audiences will be invited to explore a photography exhibition featuring work from Manchester photographers who have spent years documenting the city’s music culture, nightlife and creative communities. Together, the film and exhibition offer a unique snapshot of a defining moment in Manchester’s cultural story—capturing not only the artists on stage, but the people, places and movements helping shape the city’s future from the ground up.

For decades, Manchester’s cultural identity has been celebrated through the artists who broke through.

Far less visible are the communities, venues, organisers and grassroots movements that made those breakthroughs possible.

Raise The Bar: From The Ground Up is a powerful documentary exploring the often-overlooked infrastructure of urban music culture in Manchester through the story of Raise The Bar and the wider ecosystem that surrounds it. Through intimate interviews with artists, venue owners, festival directors, cultural leaders and community partners, the film examines what it truly takes to sustain creativity in a city shaped by inequality, ambition and constant change.

At its heart, this is a story about belonging.

It is a story about people creating opportunities where none existed, building platforms in the absence of investment, and using music not simply as entertainment, but as a vehicle for connection, identity and collective action.

Blending personal testimony with a wider exploration of Manchester’s contemporary cultural landscape, Raise The Bar: From The Ground Up asks urgent questions about who gets access to creative opportunity, who shapes a city’s cultural future, and what is lost when grassroots spaces disappear.

Both a celebration and a reflection, the film offers a rare insight into the people working tirelessly behind the scenes to nurture talent, sustain communities and keep culture alive at its source.

At a time when grassroots music spaces face unprecedented challenges, Raise The Bar: From The Ground Up stands as a timely and compelling portrait of the individuals proving that culture is not created from the top down—it is built, protected and reimagined by communities themselves.

This is not a film about what Manchester has been.

It is a film about who is shaping what Manchester becomes next.

Event Schedule

12:00-14:00 Exhibition in Space 0
14:30-17:00 Film Screening, followed by Performances and Panel