This is shaping up to be the busiest musical weekend in Manchester, with more and more events coming to our attention. Here’s what we’ve spotted:

• The previously mentioned Hungry Pigeon festival, which will have an outdoor stage in Piccadilly Gardens. Friday-Sunday, £19.50 weekend or £10 per day. Tickets
• The Eurocultured street festival, with two outdoor stages and five venues around New Wakefield Street. Sunday-Monday £3/2 each day. Website
• Friends of Manchester summer party, which features 11 bands on two stages in the Chorlton Irish Club. Friday, 7pm-1am. £7. Facebook
• Hedge at St Margaret’s Church in Whalley Range, with John Smith and Denis Jones. Sunday. £8. Myspace
• A Switchflicker night at the Deaf Institute, with three bands plus DJs until 3am. Saturday. £5. Website
• Strummercamp, which brings the likes of Billy Bragg, the Damned, the Alarm and Goldblade to the Manchester Rugby Club in Cheadle Hulme. Friday-Sunday. £59.50 weekend or £30 per day. Website
• John Cooper Clarke will be DJing and ‘taking to the mic to tell us what the tracks mean to him with his comical and intelligent verse’ at South. Friday. £5. Facebook
• And of course Hey! Manchester’s own celebration of folk music at – where else? – Chorlton’s folk bar Dulcimer. Sunday, 6pm-midnight. £10. Website

Plus there are some more straight-up gigs by the likes of Morrissey, Black Lips, Akron/Family, Inspector Tapehead and Jean Michel Jarre. Good luck planning your weekend!

Here’s a selection of shows happening in Manchester over the next few days:

On Tuesday neo-shoegazers Asobi Seksu play at the Roadhouse to promote new album Hush. It’s not exactly our cup of tea but they could appeal to fans of Ride, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins. Or not. Tickets.

Back to the Roadhouse on Wednesday, as the venue’s staffers Loveless present Leeds’ blues-rocking duo The Old Romantic Killer Band plus Sycamore and Serpentine Pad. Loveless will also be joined on the decks by Stop Making Sense and Revolver DJs.  More info.

Salford’s very own beat/performance/punk poet and recent sexagenarian John Cooper Clarke appears at the Dancehouse Theatre opposite the BBC on Friday. He’s also there on Saturday – Valentine’s Day, lest we forget! – but tickets (at a fairly reasonable £15) have already sold out. Get Friday’s here before they’re all gone too.

Also on Friday, the frustratingly titled Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band with Tim and Sam play an Akoustik Anarkhy night at the Deaf Institute, supported by the Yellow Moon Band. Put Your Slippers On, their debut seven-track EP, is now available for £5. Tickets.

Then on Saturday there’s a good chance you’ll be at one Academy or another (if you don’t have prior Valentine obligations). Locals I Am Kloot will be playing bitter-sweet songs up in Academy 3 – though, again, this is sold out so Sunday 15 is your best chance. Meanwhile, in the basement, Late of the Pier will be entertaining while Magazine and Ipso Facto will be playing to a sold-out Academy 1 next door.

Phew! Also, newly confirmed – or spotted – this week (mostly by Hey! Manchester):

A Place to Bury Strangers at the Ruby Lounge on 2 April

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone at the Deaf Institute on 20 April

Great Lake Swimmers and Last Harbour at Dulcimer in Chorlton on 19 May

Phosphorescent at the Deaf Institute on 30 May