trying to find shelter for the picnic
samba band
you are not your things
samba gets replace by soundsystem
rain drives celebrations into city centre
spontaneous demo
a break in front of Chetham Library
Mayday dancing
reclaiming the Printworks
Mayday: a 24 hour thing?
kidz enjoying the music
Nonetheless, the samba band Baraka entertained up to 100 Mayday’ers for over an hour in the rain in Piccadilly Gardens. Lots of by-passers enjoyed a dance and the free sandwiches. Only a shop manager voiced his anger at the “noise” when he ran out to steal the main Mayday banner.
The rain then drove a group of 50 Mayday’ers away from Piccadilly Gardens and towards the city, Market Street and the Urbis. The samba band was replaced by a mobile soundsystem playing reggae tunes. At one occasion police officers tried to push the unauthorised march off the road onto the pavement – unsuccessfully.
The Mayday celebrations continued with an hour of dancing and games in front of the Chetham School of Music and Chetham Library, in which Karl Marx and Frederic Engels had discussed the evils of capitalism and Engels wrote his book “The Condition of the Working Class in England”.
There is no better place for entertainment and celebrations in Manchester than the Printworks – a factory turned into a temple for consumerism with its bars, restaurants and cinemas. Mayday celebrations thus continued there with more music and (unfortunately unsuccessful) attempts to take down a few St. George’s flags. 30 minutes later Mayday’ers left the building to avoid confrontation with the police and called an end to a rainy but fun day.
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