Things to do in October 2025

Your curated guide to October's arts and culture in Liverpool, Manchester and the North West

Despite my daughter insisting it’s the Gen Alpha way to Halloween-up your bedroom before September is out, I haven’t published this guide early to be down with the kids. Instead, it’s because I have an interview to share with you all next week that I need a bit more time to finish writing up.

My newspaper feature-writing background means I’m able to get enough material for a 1,000-word interview in just a 15-minute conversation - the way PR used to work is that you would be one of a long list of regional journalists lined up to interview whatever star it happened to be on the phone on that occasion (Marianne Faithful, Julian Clary, someone from Hollyoaks…), and you had to make do with a short time slot and whatever replies they were prepared to give you. These ranged from brilliant to petulant. Either way you had an angle for the next day’s features pages.

It’s more challenging when your interviewee has been so generous with their time that you have two-hours of audio and your head is buzzing with everything they’ve shared about their life and their work. I’m indulging myself and taking a bit longer to finish the one I’ve got for you next week. I promise it will be worth the wait.

Tiber Young Producers with Neil Keating, centre (Image: Brian Roberts)

This all ultimately means that I’m giving you a bonus pick for October because the exhibition I was planning to include in the usual weekly ‘Opening This Week’ spot starts in September - although its final date does just about sneak into October. So here it is instead: Tate Liverpool’s collaboration with a group of young producers, artists and curators, supported by artist Mark Murphy, is being revealed this week. Tiber Young Producers: Through Our Lens combines photomontage, photography and film to explore the history, culture and wisdom of different generations in the L8 postcode. Some of the new pieces will remain in the Tiber building, joining a mural co-created with artist Neil Keating that was installed in April. It’s open to the public from 5-7pm on Friday, September 26; Monday, September 29; Tuesday, September 30 and Wednesday, October 1.

And now to the usual format… this monthly guide is curated exclusively for paid members to thank them for their support, which is needed to keep Stored Honey running. If you would like to join us and receive it straight to your inbox, you can subscribe using this button…