The Guide: weekend things to do

A few suggestions to help you plan your weekend (04 - 06 Dec)

Things To Do

Enter the Bungee Dome

Manchester gears up for the festive season with three new attractions for Christmas visitors.

The newest attraction at the Piccadilly Snow Gardens is the Snow Ball, a specialist bungee trampoline that throws you 12 metres into the air.

The open-air Snow Slide is back so you can whizz down the 50 metre (165 ft) slide in a large tyre, gliding along the surface of artificial snow.

Or if you like your alpine fun a bit mellower, you can step inside a Giant Snowglobe and have your picture taken with family and friends.

Piccadilly Snow Gardens is open from 3 December 2009 - 3 January 2010.

For more information, visit Manchester City Council's Christmas events website

Arts & Culture

The Hitchhiker, Robert Gwathmey, 1937

A load of old Pollocks to some but to others, the most exciting, original and defining images of modern American life.

The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock is a collection of art depicting pre-and post-War America, from the evocative cityscapes of Edward Hopper and Martin Lewis to romanticised views of the rural heartlands by Thomas Hart Benton and the young Jackson Pollock.

It heads back to the British Museum on 13 December so this is your last chance to view the most comprehensive collection of American prints of this period outside the United States.

The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock is at the Whitworth Art Gallery until 13 December.

For more information, visit the Whitworth Art Gallery website.

Nature & Outdoors

Tatton Park's live Nativity opens this weekend with animals taking the starring roles in the Farm's Christmas production.

This year, four newborn lambs will line up alongside Nativity regulars the Angora goats and donkey trio Daisy, Dotty and Frosty.

Visitors will be able to see the lambs, new piglets on the weekends of 5th/6th, 12th/13th and 19th/20th December.

And younger visitors will receive a special gift from Father Christmas.

Father Christmas At The Farm is at Tatton Park every Saturday and Sunday before Christmas.

For more information, visit the Tatton Park website.

BBC Introducing

Formed after a massive house party inspired them into action, Friends of Mine have spent half a decade bringing the best of cutting edge music to the stages of Manchester.

Just to prove their worth, they're celebrating their fifth birthday with two great shows on Friday, which feature one great band from here and one just as fine one from far away.

Brooklyn's somewhat amazing The Pains of Being Pure at Heart headline the first half of the festivities down at Academy 2, while local heroes Dutch Uncles top the bill of the second half, a major blowout at Night and Day.

If past FoM shows are anything to go by, they're bound to be full-on parties and there's every chance that some the promoters' big name friends will be popping down to join in the fun.

Friends of Mine is at Academy 2 with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart at 7pm and Night and Day with Dutch Uncles at 11pm on Friday 4 December.

For more information, visit the Friends of Mine: MySpace website