SCENE Festival

It’s A Sin – Full Series Screening and Panel

Book Your Ticket
Cast image from It's a Sin showing five friends standing together indoors, smiling and looking upward, with the person in front wearing a denim jacket and holding their arms out wide.
Date
23 Aug 2026
Venue
The Hall, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
Tickets
Standard*: £16.50
Aviva £10 tickets available.
*A booking fee applies to all tickets.

4pm

All access tickets – including wheelchair user spaces, accessible viewing platform tickets and essential companion tickets – must be bought directly from Factory International.

To book access tickets, please call 0161 817 4531. Phone lines are typically open 10am to 6pm, Tuesday to Friday, but for our latest phone line opening hours, please visit our Contact Us page.

If you need to make an access booking but are unable to do so over the phone, please email access@factoryinternational.org. We aim to respond to all emails within two working days.

With affordable ticketing options across all our own programme, we want to make sure there’s nothing stopping you from getting involved. Our affordable ticket options include:

Aviva £10 Tickets. There are Aviva £10 Tickets for those who might need them across all our own shows and events, supported by Aviva*

For information about Aviva £10 Tickets and concessions visit our Affordable Ticketing page.

*Please note Aviva £10 Tickets operate on a first-come, first-served basis

15+ only

Book Your Ticket

15+ Only

Accessibility features available for this event: Captioning Wheelchair Access

Join a special Pride screening of iconic TV series It’s a Sin as part of SCENE Festival

Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin are young lads, strangers at first, leaving home at 18 and heading off to London in 1981 with hope, ambition and joy… and walking straight into a virus that most of the world ignores.

The landmark award-winning TV series by Russell T Davies screened on Channel 4 five years ago, shining a light on the lives of young people fighting the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and early 90s. Millions of viewers took the show to their heart. HIV testing increased overnight.

For SCENE Festival, and ahead of our dance adaptation with Rambert, watch all five episodes of It’s a Sin on the big screen for the first time.

Before the screening, join Russell T Davies (writer), Nicola Shindler (Executive Producer), Phil Collinson (Producer) and more cast and crew for a panel discussing the programme. Find out about the real stories behind the characters, the show’s legacy and how the series will be retold for the stage.

SCENE Festival

SCENE: Manchester LGBTQ+ Film and TV Festival celebrates the very best in new and classic LGBTQ+ cinema and television, bringing together incredible talent from across the industry.

The event showcases a dynamic mix of premieres, exclusive previews, much-loved classics, Q&As, panels and parties.

The week-long 2026 festival runs from Thursday 20 to Thursday 27 August. The festival offers a combination of ticketed and free events, with a portion of profits donated to Manchester Village Pride’s chosen local charities.

It's a Sin

Neon-lit dancers posing inside a glowing triangle frame at a nightclub.
Rambert and Factory International transform Russell T Davies’ landmark series into a powerful dance story of love and survival – directed and choreographed by Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer | February 2027

Tickets

Tickets on sale: Thursday 9 July, 10am

We have a range of affordable tickets on offer, including Aviva £10 Tickets* and Concessions. You can find out more on our Affordable Tickets page.

For ticketing and box office related enquiries, please contact tickets@factoryinternational.org or call 0333 322 8679 (phone lines are open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm).

For more information please visit Ticketing and Sale of Goods Terms & Conditions – Factory International

*Please note Aviva £10 Tickets operate on a first-come, first-served basis

Access information

Getting to Aviva Studios

Our full address is Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester M3 4JQ and the what3words is chop.feeds.chase.

You can approach Aviva Studios along Water Street (coming from Quay Street) or along Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield). Both entrances to the building have double sets of glass doors.

Inside Aviva Studios

Once inside Aviva Studios, there is step-free access to all areas of the venue. The flooring throughout the building is smooth concrete.

The entrance to the Warehouse is by lift or stairs from the Social. Two lifts and a staircase to the Warehouse are located in the Social opposite the bar.

The entrance to the Andrew Law Hall is by lift, escalator or stairs from one side of the Social beside the brick arches. There is only one escalator, and this will take you up to the Andrew Law Hall before the show, and will be reversed so that you can travel down at the end of the performance.

The Social has a range of seating, including those with arms and backs.

The bars in the Social and Hall Foyer have lowered accessible service points.

Our building is large. We have portable stools available to borrow if you would benefit from resting along the way during your visit.

We have wheelchair spaces and seats at standing events for all events.

Toilets

There are accessible toilets on all public levels of our building.

Accessible toilets are located inside the main toilets space in the brick arches of the Social.

Here you’ll find a mixture of accessible cubicles with left- or right-hand transfer, towards the back of the space, as well as ambulant accessible cubicles with grab rails, as well as a Changing Places facility.

The toilets in the brick arches of the Social are split into male, female and gender neutral – all of which contain accessible cubicles. There are shared handwashing facilities in each arch – they have soap dispensers under the mirrors to your left and dryers to the right. There are separate handwashing facilities inside the accessible cubicles.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in both Hall Foyers, at stalls and circle level.

There are additional single-room accessible toilets located in the Warehouse Foyer.

You do not need a key to use the accessible toilets at Aviva Studios.

Assistance dogs

Assistance dogs are welcome in our building, and we can provide mats and water bowls on request, just ask a host when you arrive. We can also take care of your assistance dog if you do not want to take your dog into the performance space. Please also refer to our assistance dogs policy.

If you are bringing an assistance dog to a ticketed event, please let us know in advance by contacting access@factoryinternational.org or calling our access phone number: 0161 817 4531 (phone lines are open 10am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday).

Step-free seating and wheelchair access

There is step-free access to all areas of the venue, including all doors to the Hall. The Hall has step-free seating in both the Stalls on row K, and in the Circle on row H and row N.  

Tickets and booking

All access tickets – including wheelchair user spaces, accessible viewing platform tickets and essential companion tickets – must be bought directly from Factory International.

To book access tickets, please call 0161 817 4531. Phone lines are typically open 10am to 6pm, Tuesday to Friday, but for our latest phone line opening hours, please visit our Contact Us page.

If you need to make an access booking but are unable to do so over the phone, please email access@factoryinternational.org. We aim to respond to all emails within two working days.

Advice on content

We know that visitors appreciate detailed information on the content of our shows in order to make informed decisions and to prepare themselves or members of their party.

This show contains strong sex, nudity, sex references, language, discrimination, drug misuse and upsetting scenes.

If there are specific themes or technical effects not spoken to above that you are concerned about, please reach out to us by emailing access@factoryinternational.org or by giving us a call on 0161 817 4531.

Captioning

This screening will be subtitled.

Travel information

Aviva Studios can be approached along Water Street (coming from Quay Street) or along Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield).

Train and tram

There are a number of rail and tram stations within the city centre which are just a short distance from Aviva Studios. The closest stations are:

By bike and active means

By Bike

There are 40 bike parking spaces at Aviva Studios including space for two accessible bikes.

National Cycling Route 6 passes close to the venue and this TfGM webpage can help with route planning.

You can also hire bikes from on-street docking stations across the city centre. The closest Starling Bike docking stations to our venue are on current on Quay Street, New Quay Street and Liverpool Road. Take a look at Transport for Greater Manchester’s webpage for advice on cycle hire.

By Walking and Other Active Means

Aviva Studios can be approached along Water Street via Liverpool Road (coming from Deansgate or Castlefield).

If you're coming from Quay Street, the safest route to avoid construction works is via the cut-through opposite Gartside Street and past Booking.com.

All footways in the surrounding area are well lit and there are appropriate crossings across all main roads.

Pedestrians with visual impairment are recommended to approach the building via Water Street, from Liverpool Road. This route has traditional carriageway and footway design with fixed street furniture which should help with navigation to the entrance.

A footbridge at Left Bank in Spinningfields provides an accessible link across the River Irwell to Salford Central station, and a further footbridge also links Aviva Studios with the Salford area of Middlewood Locks.

Bus

Free bus

The free bus 1 service connects Piccadilly Station, Oxford Road and Deansgate rail stations, as well as other areas of the city centre to Aviva Studios.

The service stops on both Liverpool Road and Quay Street, close to the venue. Buses operate every 10 minutes during the day from Monday to Sunday and they are wheelchair accessible. For full details of the free bus 1 route and timetable, please visit the Bee Network website.

Bee Network services

Piccadilly Gardens is situated in the heart of Manchester and there are a number of bus services that will take you on to Aviva Studios. The 33 bus which starts at Shudehill, calls at Piccadilly Gardens and will take you straight to Liverpool Road. Services operate every 30 minutes Monday to Saturday and every hour on Sunday.

Alternatively, you can board either a 35, 36 or 38 bus to Bridge Street bus stop which is a seven-minute walk via Left Bank and Water Street to the venue.

Coming into Manchester Victoria rail station? Head on over to Shudehill Interchange (which is a seven-minute walk via Hanover Street) where you can catch the 33 bus to Liverpool Road.

Alternatively, you can board either an 8, 67 or 100 bus from Manchester Victoria to Bridge Street bus stop, which is a seven-minute walk via Left Bank and Water Street to the venue.

Car

There is a NCP car park (Manchester Spinningfields) approximately 0.25 miles (400m) away from Aviva Studios at Spinningfields, New Quay Street, Manchester, M3 3BE. It has 35 accessible bays.

There are a small number of Blue Badge spaces along Water St and Quay St. Otherwise head towards Liverpool Road, Great John St and Lower Byrom St – close to our neighbours, the Science and Industry Museum where there are a small number of additional Blue Badge spaces.

For a list of other parking bays available in the area, visit Manchester City Council website.

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