By Dan J Broadley

The Humanities in Public’s Gothic Manchester Festival 2014 drew to a close as the city bar, Fab Café, was re-branded for the evening as ‘The Fang Café’.  Festival organisers hosted a vampire themed pub quiz, which you don’t see every day, so all the Gothic enthusiasts I met there were pretty chuffed with the opportunity to put their vampire knowledge to the test.

A number of Gothic themed cocktails were on offer, including a Strawberry Dracaquiri, a Bloody Virgin and a Zombie Apocalypse. Personally, I stuck with the daiquiris (It was two for £6…).

Just before the quiz got under way I ran in to some friendly people from Manchester Metropolitan University’s English Society. I spoke to Hannah Huxley-Wright who seemed to be enjoying herself,

“I think its brilliant and think it’s good to have a pub quiz on things I actually know about, rather than general knowledge!”

I thought so too, but I’m no Goth. During the quiz that followed, I found myself on the side-lines wondering how people knew so much about vampires, so I got another daiquiri, sorry, Dracquiri …

The quiz was soon well underway, the first round of vampire culture was followed by vampire cinema, vampire TV, vampire literature and a picture round, which even included a Mr. Burns vampire from The Simpsons. That’s about all I could’ve answered. I’d have been a burden to anybody’s team. So I got another daiquiri.

One team name was ‘Tequila Mockingbird’. I laughed even if you didn’t.

It wasn’t long until the marks were added up and the winning team was announced, which ended up being the ‘Type A Team’. They won a handsome prize of £35, some sweets and a vampire doll, toy type thing (It was Count von Count from Sesame Street – Ed.). I asked ‘Type A Team’ how they felt about winning.

“Ecstatic” and “extremely surprised” were just some of the emotive adjectives thrown out at me as I scribbled them down on my notepad, but what I found best was that James and Hannah of ‘Type A Team’ came last in last year’s Fang Café pub quiz, only to come back this year and take the grand prize.

After the quiz, music and drink and general merriness followed, so I had another daiquiri.

At one point I ran in to Dr Sorcha Ni Fhlainn, the vampire enthusiast who set up the themed questions for this quiz, and we hung out for a little.

“I would think it has been the best year so far for the Gothic Festival, really exciting and really diverse. There’s been lots of different things on display – we’ve put on shows, conferences and even today’s vampire pub quiz.”

She also said that every effort is going into making next year’s GothicManchester Festival even better, but gave away no secrets as to what could be expected next year, except the possibility of a werewolf themed pub quiz, perhaps.

“I’m really happy with how it’s gone this year; next years will hopefully get even better!”

Finally, I asked her what her favourite cocktail was. The zombie Apocalypse was her answer. I don’t even know what was in that concoction.

The conclusion I drew from this pub quiz was that Humanities in Public have pulled off another top draw job at this year’s Gothic Manchester Festival and can be expected to do so again with everything else they put on. Also, that a daiquiri is my new favourite drink.

Dan is an English and Creative Writing student at Manchester Metropolitan University. His interests include music, festivals, bass guitar, writing poetry, having ideas for novels and meditation. Follow him on Twitter @DanJBroadley.