WE INVENTED THE WEEKEND FESTIVAL announces 2024 dates and teases unforgettable FREE Programme with DJ Paulette set reveal

It’s time to save the date! We Invented the Weekend, the bold and imaginative free festival for the UK held in Salford, will be returning to Greater Manchester on 15th and 16th June. The full programme for the 2024 festival will be announced in the coming months but revealed today is an unmissable Sunday afternoon set from Manchester’s favourite DJ Paulette.

After a hugely successful launch year in June 2023, which saw 60,000 visitors descend onto MediaCity and its neighbouring areas, We Invented the Weekend will once again transform Salford Quays with a programme of completely FREE performances and activities to celebrate what people get up to over the weekend*.

Wayne Hemingway, co-founder of We Invented the Weekend, said: “The concept of We Invented the Weekend is like none-other and based off the tens of thousands of people who visited on that wonderfully sunny, uplifting weekend last year, it is clear people are understanding the ethos and meaning of the festival. It is incredibly impactful to be able to put on We Invented the Weekend as a free large-scale event in the place where the weekend was created in 1843. The event doesn’t just celebrate what we all get up to at the weekend, but is a moment to also recognise the culture, heritage and legacy of Salford and Greater Manchester.”

Revellers will be able to expect a specially curated programme of over 200 events and activities which will resonate with people of all ages and backgrounds, with unmissable headline moments scattered throughout the weekend celebrations.

DJ Paulette said: “I am so excited to play at We Invented The Weekend – one of the ‘all are welcome’ high points in the Greater Manchester outdoor events diary. The ethos of this weekend is universally understood, it’s beautiful and it feels very special to know that it came from a Greater Manchester campaigning action. I can’t wait to come together with the community in June and celebrate all the amazing things people can get up to at the weekend!”

2023’s programme saw household names such as BBC, RHS, The Lowry and Science and Industry Museum, plus a host of local creatives and community-run organisations present over 200 free performances and activities which helped MediaCity achieve its highest footfall moment in its history. The festival also brought in over £3.2m to the local economy**.

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*Salford Lyceum director and workers’ rights activist Robert Lowes (also Sir Ian McKellen’s Great Great Grandfather) campaigned to win mill workers the right to leisure time on Saturday afternoons. In this triumph, Greater Manchester gave an enormous gift to the world and We Invented the Weekend honoured this, in true style, celebrating leisure time, free time, quality time, and me-time.

** The figures are best estimates provided by NGI based on available data such as attendance/footfall figures and visitor survey data. The economic impact is calculated using visitor spend figures from a comparable event in Manchester in 2018. The name of this can be provide upon request due to GDPRprotection.