“It’s an inherently Mancunian character,” Wilson says of the ambition. “We are in the world-changing business here in Manchester. We always have been, and Manchester is like a village, but there’s 2.9 million Mancunians here. In terms of manifesting change, it’s part of our character, but it’s also possible here in a tangible sense, because Greater Manchester is a great place to blueprint new ideas, and trial them, and get them out in the world. It’s just the right size to be able to get your hands on, but it’s big enough to do world-changing things. I don’t think that we could do it any other way here, to be honest.”

There’s a timely parallel here with Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Number 10 of the North and the idea of rebalancing the scales away from London. Burnham, actually one of Beyond The Music’s founding members, will convene the Creative Industries AI Summit – billed as “the first global summit where every content industry agrees a position on AI.”

Wilson elaborates: “We are co-curating, through a series of conversations and responses and votes and actions, a set of principles around the ethical use of AI in the creative industries that we are going to title the Manchester Principles.” He explains that because Manchester has been thrust into the global spotlight – perhaps wielding more clout than ever before – there’s an even greater opportunity to “blueprint ideas here that can then get pushed to a much higher level, and could be taken to government and could rally for real change.”

Another change for BTM this year is the siloing of genres in partnership with guest curators. Wednesday will see their first dedicated metal stage, for example, hosted by the Rock & Metal Alliance and curated with John Robb – musician, author, journalist, and founder-editor of . Elsewhere, BBC 6 presenter Chris Hawkins provided his two cents for Thursday’s indie pop and alternative night, headlined by Tom A. Smith. And Friday leans rap, hip hop, and grime, with Kofi Stone as headliner and co-curation from Amazon Music +44 and talent manager Michael Adex of NQ – the label, publisher, and talent management organisation based in the city.