The fun starts at 12pm with an afternoon of entertainment. Children can meet one of their favourite childrens characters – Dora The Explorer – and there will be free festive face painting all afternoon and balloons to take home. You can visit Santa in his grotto, (price £3 p/child and includes a free gift) and St Josephs School choir will also be there adding to the festive atmosphere, singing well loved Christmas Carols.

The day culminates with the big light switch on and an array of surprise guests from 3pm onwards. Acts include opera singer Russell Watson who will be fronting the show (on behalf of Francis House Children’s Hospice), Helen Flanagan (Coronation Street’s Rosie Webster) , Phoenix and New Era.

However, for many the highlight of the day will be the performance from 2008 X Factor finalist Laura White who will be performing her brand new single You Should Have Known. Laura will also be joined by surprise guests from this years X Factor. Finally, Mike Toolan and Chelsea Norris from Mike and Chelsea in the Morning on Key 103 will be there to host the event.

Events like this can be very popular so you may want to get there early to ensure you are able to join the fun. There is car parking on site and the area is served by public transport. The nearest Metrolink station is Harbour City on the Eccles line.

The Lowry Outlet Mall is located at The Quays, Salford Quays, Salford, M50 3AH

For more information about what’s on this Christmas please visit
www.lowryoutletmall.co.uk .

There are a total of five Proms In The Park regional classical music concerts and they are part of the final highlights of the BBC’s Proms 2009 classical music festival which lasts from 17th July – 12th September, 2009.

This year Buile Hill Park, Salford, will be one of only five regional concert venues that will host the BBC’s Proms in the Park concerts. These concerts, together with the Last Night of the Proms event at London’s Royal Albert Hall, mark the end of the festival, on Saturday 12 September, 2009. The other Proms in the Park events are taking place in:-

Hillsborough Castle, County Down
Glasgow Green, Glasgow
Hyde Park, London
Singleton Park, Swansea

Proms In The Park, together with the Last Night of the Proms event at the Royal Albert Hall, London, are the culmination of what is probably the UK’s most well known classical music festival. The BBC Proms 2009 includes more than 70 concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and 19 chamber music recitals at Cadogan Hall, Chelsea, London.

This is a great opportunity to see the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra which is based in Studio 7 Concert Hall, BBC Manchester, Oxford Road, in a memorable and atmospheric outdoor venue.

At the time of writing there are plans to screen Proms in the Park on the BBC Big Screens located around the country, including Manchester’s Exchange Square.

(Additionally,Manchester based chamber orchestra Manchester Camerata will be playing as part of the Proms 2009 at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday 20 July 2009, 9.30pm)

The event, supported by NS&I (National Savings & Investments).

The BBC have a very useful dedicated microsite for the Proms in the Park.

Tickets are priced at £15.00 (£10.00 for Salford residents)

Details of the BBC’s Proms 2009, including TV and radio coverage, can be found online, here.

For more details, visit Visit Salford or phone 0161 848 8601.

Are you planning to go? What are you looking forward to? Tell us more, in the comments section, below -

Phillip Pullman has had a distinguished writing career with a string of popular childrens books in print. Perhaps his best known works is the His Dark Materials trilogy. The novel trilogy His Dark Materials consists of the books Northern Lights (called The Golden Compass, in the US), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. Together they make up an exciting and very popular trilogy series of novels that have become a world wide hit.

The books in the series have also been made into an Academy Award and a BAFTA winning film called The Golden Compass. The smash hit film was called The Golden Compass and the cast included Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, amongst many others.

Now the stage adaptation of His Dark Materials is on at The Lowry, in Salford, and it is likely to be popular with Pullman fans young and old.

The books have been adapted for the stage by British playwright and dramatist Nicholas Wright, who is a former Associate Director at the National Theatre. Both plays are directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and Sarah Esdaile. The plays are performed by actors from the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass have been made into two separate full length plays – His Dark Materials Part 1 and Part 2. They will be performed at The Lowry, as follows:-

His Dark Materials Part 1, will be performed on Thursday 23rd April at 7:30 pm, Saturday 25th April at 2:00 pm and Sunday 26th April at 2:00 pm.

Part 2 of His Dark Materials, will be performed on Friday 24th April at 7:30 pm, Saturday 25th April at 7:30pm and Sunday 26th April at 7:30 pm.

The show is suitable for ages 12+ and tickets are priced from £14.00 to £20.00 for each performance.

For more information about both the production and for ticket availability, visit the whats on section of The Lowry website.

This is great news for fans of the Manchester music scene and offers an opportunity for fans to take a great trip down memory lane.

Subtitled Salford Sounds – 1950s To Today, the exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, (Peel Park, The Crescent, Salford, M5 4WU) celebrates the history of popular music in Salford over the past fifty years.

The exhibition lets

“Salford musicians, bands, managers, producers, fans and music people recount their personal stories for this exhibition, and show the unique musical character of this city……”

The wide range of exhibits include:-

• New Order’s Peter Hook’s guitar
• Ting Tings 2007 tour artwork
• an original demo tape from the Happy Mondays
• stage costumes belonging to Elkie Brooks

and much much more.

Accompanying the exhibition is the production of the Salford Music Map. The Map is available from the exhibition, Salford Tourist Information Centre and a number of key venues on the map, or you can request a copy of the map from the event website, here.

The map shows the location of many important venues that relate to Salford’s musical heritage, such as Salford Lads’ Club, made famous by The Smiths and Islington Mill, home of the Ting Tings.

The exhibition runs until 25 Oct 2009 and you can find out more about the exhibition by visiting the event website, here.

Historically, Salford has had a very important role in the development of Manchester as a world class industrialised city. Salford commences just outside Manchester town centre and the municipal boundary between Manchester and Salford follows the course of the River Irwell as it passes through the area.

Salford is home to the Salford Quays area, a once thriving port area known as Salford Docks or Manchester Docks. This linked Manchester, via the Manchester Ship Canal, to the sea. It allowed the export of cotton and linen while, at the same time being an important route for the import of 1,000s of different types of goods.

While changes in world trade over the last 30 years has meant the the area is no longer used as a port, the whole canal area has been redeveloped for residential, retail and leisure use and is now one of the most important attractions in the Greater Manchester area.

Salford Quays is now home to The Lowry, an arts venue that includes theatres, art galleries and souvenir shop. It is also home to the Salford’s Tourist Information Centre. The gallery exhibits over 300 paintings by Manchester’s world famous artist L. S. Lowry. Next to it is the Lowry Outlet Mall, a shopping mall with a range of shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants.

Ordsall Hall is nearby and dates back over 800 years. It was the family seat of the Radclyffe family although during its life Ordsall was used for a variety of purposes. It is now a popular museum with a range of exhibitions, events and activities of historical interest. Unfortunately, the museum is closed for refurbishment until 2011.

Worsley village is an attractive area to the west of Salford, on the Bridgewater Canal. Worsley village includes a number of historic buildings in a peaceful canal side setting.