James ‘Yer Mam!‘ Morton and Matthew ‘The Pigeon Post‘ Britton have signed up for the awards event, which takes place at the Deaf Institute on Wednesday 20 October 2010. These top-class music bloggers will be offering an eclectic mix of music for all tastes.

The awards evening is a popular event and features readings, music and, of course, the largest annual meeting of Manchester bloggers. This year we have managed to secure author and previous blog awards winner Chris Killen. Most importantly, we’ll be announcing the winners of the 2010 awards. So come along if you’re a blogger, a reader or a curious onlooker – all are welcome.

This year, the Manchester Blog Awards moves to a new home: the cultural hub that is the Deaf Institute, which is situated at 135 Grosvenor Street on the university campus. Tickets are £4 (£3 concs). They will be available on the door or may be booked in advance. You can book tickets here or by calling Quay Tickets on 0843 208 0500.

We’ve already had some ultra-keen blog-fans asking when they can start nomination. The answer: right now! So hop over to the Nominate a Blog form, after first checking eligibility in the Categories section. And remember: sure, you can nominate your own blog – but don’t forget to put forward one or two other blogs that you enjoy reading too. Each blog only needs one nomination to be longlisted.

If you want to promote the 2010 Manchester Blog Awards on your blog/news site, you can download our logo in the Press section, and to get in touch visit the Contact form. If you’re tweeting about the awards, why not include the #mcrblogawards hashtag?

At tomorrow’s event, the blogger DJs will send out a continuous live feed to a page on the MBA site (we’ll post it here as soon as it’s up) with information on the tracks they’re playing. A simultaneous web and video feed will broadcast the sights and sounds of the event to users online, who can comment on the music via twitter.

The DJ’s will be playing throughout the MBA event, but we’ll keep the sound turned off in the venue when the blog readings and awards are happening. After the talking bit’s over (around half nine) there will be a couple of hours of  music and party time. Here’s the schedule of who’s playing when.

Indie Credential – 6pm

Cosmic Disco – 7pm

Just Press Play – 8pm

Yer Mam 9pm

Cosmic Disco 10pm

DJ Battle-off 11pm

Big thanks to Jon and Ben at Cahoona, who organised the original Bloggerpalooza as part of Futuresonic in May 2008 and made it happen again at this year’s Blog Awards.

We’ve sold more advance tickets than at this time last year. The event has become more widely known, and looks set to draw a bigger audience than ever before. Now, we expected this and that’s part of the reason we moved to a more spacious venue. But if you want to be positively sure of getting in, play it safe and get your tickets in advance from Band on the Wall, either over the internets here or in person at the venue box office (saves you 50p in booking fees!)

The seating will be cabaret-style with tables and chairs and plenty of standing room at the back. And if the main floor gets too cramped, there’s always the mezzanine. But if you’re the kind of person who worries a lot about having a comfortable perch and likes to get there early to get good seats, be there when the doors open at seven.  And you can hang out in the adjoining Picturehouse bar if you arrive early. But remember, if you want the whole table you have to buy a £395 bottle of cognac.  (No, we’re kidding. As if.)

Don’t worry, we may have moved to a bigger venue but the ethos of the night remains the same as it ever was – relaxed, friendly and casual. There will be no tablecloths. There will be no prawn cocktail with marie rose sauce, no napkins folded to resemble swans.  Were you a bit worried about that? It’s okay, you’re safe to come in jeans and trainers.

We’re  delighted that Jenn Ashworth’s first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, has been shortlisted for the Guardian’s Not the Booker prize.

Jenn won our Best Writing on a Blog award two years ago for the excellent Every Day I Lie a Little. She went on to publish her novel and is now returning this year to headline the blog awards Oct 21. She’ll read from her recent work on the night and chat with us about writing and blogging, with some time for questions from the audience. She’s also on this year’s judging panel, and is currently reading through all the fine blogs on the shortlist.

But back to the Not the Booker. You can vote for her to win this prize by leaving a comment here. It only takes a minute. But don’t delay; voting is closing at midday tomorrow. Go Jenn!

If your blog wasn’t among those shortlisted this year, don’t despair -  there’s always next year.

I’ve written a bit about the blogging trends I’ve seen developing this year over on my blog, The Manchizzle (hyperlocal sites, mommy/daddyblogs, and some new foodie blogs). But we’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the shortlist here in the run-up to the announcement of the winners at Band on the Wall October 21.

Creative Tourist will unveil their Top 25 Art Blogs at the blog awards event October 21 at Band on the Wall. CT is also sponsoring this year’s Best Arts and Culture Blog award. The winner in this category will receive a writing commission on the site in adddition to the £50 cash prize.

They say, ‘The Creative Tourist Top 25 is by no means a definitive list. But as it shapes up, the list promises to reveal the depth and diversity of cultural blogging out there: from critical reviews to arts news; from the personal to the corporate; and from lengthy writing to almost entirely text-free blogging.”

The Top 25 will be published monthly with the first list announced at the blog awards. For more information about how the blogs will be selected or to nominate a blog, read Creative Tourist’s post about it.

Now we’re busy reading all these excellent blogs, making our lists and checking them twice. We’re choosing the very best for our shortlist, which will be out soon, so look out for our next update. Then our excellent judges will make the final deliberations. More on them later.

Now back to the blog reading….

One surprise so far has been learning about the many sites that have started up in the last year. We suspected there were quite a few new blogs lurking about, but the number and quality of new blogs in Manchester right now is frankly a bit overwhelming.

So what does this mean? For us, it’s clear evidence that the platform has long passed the “social media flavour of the month” phase, and matured into a medium that’s now essential to how we read and write, communicate with the world, get information and express ourselves in the modern world.

Okay, getting off soapbox now. Keep those nominations rolling in, folks.

And yes, there is also a hashtag whose use we would like to promote: #mcrblogawards. Use it with reckless abandon.