Great Northern Craft Fair returns to Victoria Baths

If you have been meaning to get a proper look at contemporary craft, the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is back in Manchester next week. It runs from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 October at Victoria Baths, and it is worth knowing the opening times before you head over, because they change from day to day.

This is the fair's 19th year, and it has grown into the largest craft fair in the North and one of the leading ones in the UK. The line-up is curated by a panel of craft experts, and this year it brings together 200 of the country's finest independent designer-makers. The range is broad: ceramics, jewellery and silver, interior and fashion textiles, glass, basketmaking, prints, wood, furniture, metal, printmaking and sculpture. More than 70 exhibitors are making their GNCCF debut, including John Egan, Caitlin Murphy and Saima Kaur.

Beyond the stalls, there is a fair amount to do. The Great Northern Graduates Showcase, a collaboration with Creative Industries Trafford that has been running since 2010, gives visual arts graduates a platform to show their work, and this year's edition features graduates from the BA (Hons) Fine Art, BA (Hons) Photography and BA (Hons) Product Design & Craft courses at Manchester School of Art. There is also a Green Grads sustainable innovation showcase, a Design-Nation showcase and work from emerging talent on the North's design courses. Design-Nation, the UK's leading membership organisation for contemporary craft and design since 1999, is present, and the Gloucestershire Guild of Craftsmen is among the exhibitors.

If you want to get stuck in, there are maker demos, free drop-in workshops and a pop-up café. You can catch sessions with award-winning designer Joe Hartley and Where The Light Gets In, Sam Buckley, creating characters for a community animation, hear from textile artist Lynn Setterington, or drop into the free pottery sessions run by Yellowhammer Ceramics Studio.

The building is half the draw. Victoria Baths, on Hathersage Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, was built between 1903 and 1906 as a municipal swimming pool, designed by architect Henry Price. It is Grade II* listed, and the exhibitor stands are set against its Edwardian tiled pools, balconies, changing cubicles and Turkish baths. The building was saved from closure in 1993 after a campaign by local supporters, and it still runs guided tours on Tuesdays from March to November for anyone who wants to see the stained glass, mosaic floors and the Turkish Baths suite up close.

On the practical front, the preview evening is on Thursday 15 October from 6pm to 9pm, and the venue is not open during the day that day. Friday and Saturday both run 10am to 6pm, and Sunday is a shorter day, 10am to 4pm. Tickets are £8.95 and can be booked through Eventbrite, and under-16s go free. If you are planning to browse and maybe pick up something handmade, it is the sort of autumn weekend that rewards a bit of browsing.