Artists from across Greater Manchester are being invited to pick up their brushes and take part in a unique painting challenge at Hard Rock Cafe Manchester this autumn, as part of their annual week-long celebrations of the life and music of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury.

The art competition will take place at Hard Rock Cafe Manchester on Tuesday September 5th (the singer’s birthday) during Hard Rock’s popular ‘Freddie For A Week’. Each artist will be challenged to create a canvas on the theme of ‘Musical Icon’ – whether that’s the likes of Liam Gallagher, Tony Wilson, New Order – or Freddie himself.

The challenge is open to amateurs and professionals alike; each finalist will have just six hours to paint their iconic image, with the winner selected by a panel of expert judges, including representatives from The Lowry Gallery and Bury Art Gallery.

The winning artist will take away a limited edition Epiphone Casino guitar and a bag of Hard Rock Cafe merchandise; there will also be prizes for second and third places.

All the paintings will be auctioned off in aid of the Mercury Phoenix Trust, is a charity organisation that fights HIV/AIDS worldwide; founded by Brian May, Roger Taylor and their manager Jim Beach, it raises thousands of pounds every year.

Aneta Jarzmik, General Manager at Hard Rock Cafe Manchester, commented:

“We wanted to do something a little different for this year’s Freddie For A Week, and so we’re going to transform our mezzanine into an artists’ studio for the day; we can’t wait to see the final works of art.”

Finalists will be chosen based on a submission of examples of previous work – high resolution images of which should be sent to hardrock@cabcampaign.co.uk with the subject clearly marked Hard Rock Cafe Painting Challenge.

The deadline for entries is 6pm on Friday June 30.