Member Article

The Printworks Turns Fifteen

This weekend The Printworks is celebrating 15 fantastic years as Manchester’s number one entertainment venue.

To mark the occasion, The Printworks is hosting a birthday bash to remember with a jam-packed weekend of live music and competitions.

Saturday 14th November is ‘Live at The Printworks’ and will see DJ Seno, singer Julia Aljaz and bands from across Manchester performing in The Pumpyard, while Sunday 15th November is ‘Soultastic Sunday’ welcoming back many of the performers from this summer’s Soul Festival, including The Casino Allstars. The party starts at 2pm on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday.

No birthday is complete without a gift, so as a thank you to its millions of visitors over the 15 years, The Printworks is running a competition for one lucky reveler to win a host of goodies across its multiple venues. The big birthday bundle includes a meal for two at Chiquito, two gold packages at the Bierkeller Entertainment Complex, a £30 bar tab at Norwegian Blue, £20 to spend at the Harvester, a £15 voucher at Waxy O’Connor’s, and much more! Entries can be made at The Printworks during the weekend. Details of the competition are on The Printworks website- www.printworks.com, Facebook page- www.facebook.com/printworksmcr, and Twitter page- www.twitter.com/the_printworks.

In 2000 the 350,000sq.ft venue was transformed from a printing house, producing more than eleven million newspapers each week, into Europe’s first urban entertainment centre, costing £150m, and becoming home to a variety of leading bars, restaurants, a gym and Manchester’s first ever IMAX cinema.

The Printworks was opened by icons Lionel Richie and Sir Alex Ferguson, who were joined by recording artist M.J Cole, Key 103 DJ Darren Proctor, radio presenters JK and Joel, the top 40 UK lookalikes and 4,000 special VIP guests who were all treated to a night to remember, culminating in a mesmerising firework display.

Since launch, The Printworks has welcomed approximately 118,500,000 visitors over its fifteen years, including a host of famous faces and sporting stars. In fact, if every person who had visited The Printworks held hands in a line, they could wrap around the world 20 times!

There has also been many amazing moments along the way, such as the opening of Hard Rock Cafe Manchester, holding the world premiere of Hitch at the ODEON, releasing a FIFA World Cup 2014 charity single, ‘Our Telly’s Bigger Than Your Telly’, and launching the first ever Manchester Soul Festival.

Fred Booth, Centre Director says: “The past fifteen years have been phenomenal! We are extremely proud of our continued success in providing a one-stop entertainment destination for our visitors, with the best food and drink venues and events that you won’t find anywhere else.

“We are holding the big birthday weekend not only to celebrate all that The Printworks has achieved, but more importantly to say a huge thank you to all our team and tenants, and all the great people that have ever visited us. We hope everyone who comes along has a great time. Here’s to the next amazing fifteen years!”

To celebrate its fifteenth birthday The Printworks has compiled a list of its top fifteen moments:

• The opening of Hard Rock Cafe Manchester in 2000
• Will Smith attending the world premier of Hitch at The Printworks ODEON in 2005
• Creating a rooftop garden, home to chickens, bees and an allotment full of flowers and vegetables – crops of which are donated to The Booth Centre to provide food for the homeless
• The rooftop bee hives, launched by Bez from Happy Mondays in 2012, harvesting a record breaking haul of honey in 2015 - with all proceeds from sales going to Forever Manchester and the Booth Centre
• Releasing a FIFA 2014 World Cup charity single ‘Our telly is bigger than your telly’ raising funds for Forever Manchester
• Launching the first ever Manchester Soul Festival on August Bank Holiday 2015 and raising £20,000 for The Christie
• Winners of The Printworks Unsigned competition, The Mend, going on to audition for the Xfactor and releasing their debut single in 2013
• Olympic decathlete, Daley Thompson hosting the first birthday party of Holmes Place Gym while in town for the Commonwealth Games
• Receiving the Bio Diversity award from Manchester City Council in 2014
• Welcoming over 118,500,000 visitors during the past fifteen years
• Hosting a private party for a Norwegian supermarket retailer, which was attended by Manchester United player, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and stars from Norway’s Strictly Come Dancing
• Twelve consecutive years (and counting!) of the Vintage Swing event, attended by 15,000 each year
• Jason Donavan headlining The Pinkworks’ Gayfest in 2007
• Hordes of famous faces partying in The Printworks, including the Gallaghers, Kylie Minogue, Will Smith, Katy Perry, Meatloaf, Michael Buble, Seth Rogan, Chris Rock, Will.I.Am, Jessie J, Jimmy Car, and the cast of Coronation Street and Phoenix Nights. Not to mention sporting stars like David Beckham, Daley Thompson, Manchester City and Manchester United players
• Becoming home to the NBA Fanzone in 2013, where fans were able to shoot hoops with NBA legends and compete for prizes, including tickets to the games

To find out more about The Printworks and it’s birthday activities visit www.theprintworks.com.

Follow The Printworks on Facebook and Twitter to find out more:

www.facebook.com/printworksmcr www.twitter.com/the_printworks

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rachel Conway .