Free things to do this week ft Rum, Record Shops + Real Ale

Rum n Reggae at Soup Kitchen
This Monday – and indeed every Monday through June – Soup Kitchen will be going Rum n Reggae. A none too elaborate ruse to get you to cough up for their Caribbean theme menu, there will nonetheless be a turntable bursting with roots, ragga, dub and dancehall. The food and cocktail menu looks pretty good as well to be honest, with a broad selection of jerk treats and rum-based cocktails.
Mon 15 Jun, Soup Kitchen, 31-33 Spear Street, Northern Quarter, M1 1DF, 12pm -12am, www.facebook.com

Gengahr at Fopp
The Fopp store on Brown Street has long been a haunt for the city’s music nerds – impossibly not even losing its cool when it was bought up by HMV in 2007. Expertly becoiffed indie lads Gengahr arer doing their bit to cement Fopp’s future with the launch of their debut album (pictured, doesn’t it look swell?). You can see the guys perform in-store for absolutely no dollar, although you’ll presumably you’ll have to pay if you want a copy of the album. They’ll probably sign it for you for free, though. It’d be pretty crappy of them not to. We’ve done a full preview here.
Wed 17 Jun, Fopp, 19 Brown Street, M2 1DA, 5pm, www.gengahr.com

Create Salford Festival at Salford Uni
Create Salford is the University’s annual showcase for their best and brightest artists. Running through ‘til the weekend, it covers projects from a wide range of disciplines from dance and performance through to old school pigment slapped on a canvas. Read our full preview here.
Wed 17 Jun – Sat 20 Jun, Wed 17 – Sat 20 Jun, University of Salford’s MediaCity and Allerton campuses, Show times vary, www.salford.ac.uk

Smithfield Opening Night
A new pub opening its doors is always a cause for celebration, especially when it’s owned by an exciting brewery. Over the past few years, Blackjack Brewery have made a bit of a name for themselves, both with their kegs and their cojones – they were the dark boozy hand behind this year’s Shebeen extravaganza. Now they’ve got their own pub, what better excuse to get down for a knees up. Check our full preview here.
Opens Thu 18 Jun, The Smithfield, 37 Swan Street, M4 5JZ, 6pm – 11pm (opening night), www.blackjack-beers.com/smithfield

Free Sports in Your Local Park
As previewed here, a new site has launched giving you a pretty broad overview of all the free sporting and fitness events in Manchester – and other cities, if you reset the filter. It’s sponsored by Coca Cola, but if you can stop your eyes from rolling for just a moment, you’ll see that this is a pretty invaluable resource for cash-strapped fun seekers.
Every single day of your sedate existence, Various times, www.parklives.com