Salford invented the weekend and now we’re getting a new festival to celebrate it

It’s perhaps a little known fact that without Greater Manchester, we might not have the weekend as we know it. Thanks to the pioneering campaigning of warehouse clerk Robert Lowes - who also happens to be the great grandfather of Sir Ian McKellen - workers were allowed to have Saturday afternoons off, paving the way for the modern weekend.

Lowes later became director of the Salford Lyceum, but his work in getting us all a bit of extra time off will be celebrated by a new festival in September. We Invented The Weekend: The Festival of Free Time will happen on September 10 and 11 at venues and spaces across Salford.

Designer Wayne Hemingway will be the event’s creative director, with the likes of The Lowry theatre, the University of Salford, RHS Bridgewater and music festival Sounds From The Other City all getting involved. The BBC will also be contributing with performance from the BBC Philharmonic taking place at Salford Quays, as well as a CBeebies live Bedtime Stories event.

“The weekend is an intrinsic part of the rhythm of life,” said Hemingway. “It’s hard to imagine life without the weekend, yet less than 180 years ago it didn’t exist. Happily, Sir Ian McKellen’s great grandad put an end to life without it.

“Greater Manchester can rightly claim to have invented the weekend and is a place that knows how to celebrate it. Whatever your bag, be it boxing or box sets, crafts or cricket, dancing or digging, reading or raving, swimming or samba, kicking back or letting loose, whatever free time means to you, MediaCity and Salford Quays is the place to be on September 10 and 11 for what has all the ingredients to become THE national celebration of free time.”

Among the events taking place will be a performance from the