This week's new events

The Manchester Weekender Though grey skies can be expected, visitors to this epic weekender will get anything but a typical view of the city's culture. Contact celebrates black culture's impact on the city with poetry, music and dance; rarely seen architecture is highlighted in Hidden Manchester; and there are catered canal tours. The Un-Convention festival uses Salford's streets, churches, Lads Club and train station plus Islington Mill for lectures, performance and discussion with Billy Bragg, Bill Drummond, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, British Sea Power and a collaboration between BBC Philharmonic bods, former PiL members including Jah Wobble, local musicians, and Jarvis Cocker. Various venues, Fri to 3 Oct, creativetourist.com/weekender Marc Rowlands London Tattoo Convention Probably not the best place to go to show off your lone Samantha Cameron-style dolphin tattoo, this gathering of the heavily inked attracts over 20,000 people who have permanently marked their dedication to Mum, Dad or Bon Jovi on their flesh. Bands, burlesque acts, exhibitions and fire-breathing cabaret are on offer throughout the weekend, but the real attraction for enthusiasts will be the vast array of tattooists attending, including some from the London Ink and Miami Ink television shows. Tobacco Dock, Porters Walk, E1, Sat, Sun, thelondontattooconvention.com Iain Aitch Story Of London Now there's a big topic, thankfully dealt with by a suitably immense programme of events across the capital. Highlights include London Recut, allowing you to play with archive clips to rewrite history; Hendrix In London, with speakers including Charles Shaar Murray. John Hegley hosts a Poems On The Underground event, and look out, too, for London Without Bazalgette, celebrating Joseph, the engineering genius behind London's sewage system. It takes the form of a walk around the city guided by podcast and iPhone app, complete with scratch'n'sniff cards to give people a taste of the Great Stink of 1858 (memorably captured in cartoon by Punch magazine). And that – ho ho! – only scratches the surface; there's more on the website. Various venues, Fri to 10 Oct, london.gov.uk/storyoflondon Stuart Goodwin Out & about High Heel-a-thon , Leeds, Sun Potentially lethal charity fun run (or walk), as competitors take on a 1.5 mile course in high heels, all in aid of Yorkshire Cancer Research. Begins Briggate, 11am, £10, students £5 Fetish Weekend , London, Fri to 3 Oct Ooh-er. An adult pyjama party, workshops in "latex wear and care" and – ahem – bondage basics, plus Torture Garden hosts the central Fetish Ball. Various venues, call 020-7582 4545 Offset 2010 , Dublin, Sat to 3 Oct Huge showcase of designers, illustrators, fashion, street art, music and much more, culminating in a three-day conference at Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre. Various venues, call 0818-719 300 Carny Ville , Bristol, Fri to 10 Oct Drag queens, crazed clowns, bearded ladies, multimedia artists and more at this steampunk take on 19th-century big top fare from The Invisible Circus. Old Fire Station, Silver St, call 0870-444 4400