Burnley is a large town in the borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,021. It lies 19 miles (30.4 km) east of Preston at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun. It began life in the early medieval period as a small market town, but its main period of expansion came during the Industrial Revolution, when it became the world's largest producer of cotton cloth. Today, Burnley has lost much of its industry, and is increasingly a dormitory town for Manchester, Leeds and the M65 corridor. The public sector is now the town's largest employer. Burnley is well-served for a town of its size. There is a 9-screen multiplex cinema in the town centre, operated by Apollo Cinemas, and a theatre called the Mechanics Institute, which plays host to touring comedians and musical acts, as well as staging amateur dramatics. A second performance space, the purpose-built £1.5m Burnley Youth Theatre, opened nearby in 2005. For art lovers, there is a small contemporary visual arts gallery, the Mid-Pennine Gallery, and - on the outskirts of Burnley - larger galleries in the town's two stately homes, Towneley Hall and Gawthorpe Hall. There are also two local museums: the town's Historical Society operates the Museum of Local History in the historic surroundings of the Weavers' Triangle, while the Queen Street Mill Textile Museum celebrates Burnley's weaving past. Once a year, Burnley hosts the two-day Burnley National Blues Festival, one of the largest Blues festivals in the country, drawing fans from all over Britain to venues spread across the town. In the 1970s, it was also an important venue for Northern Soul; several local pubs still hold regular Northern Soul nights. In recent years, the town has also hosted an annual balloon festival in the setting of Towneley Park. Burnley has a lively nightlife, drawing clubbers from all over the north-west. The town is dominated by the club Lava Ignite; other major bars and nightclubs include Fusion (electro, retro, ghetto, house and techno), Calamity Jane's (cowboy-themed), Smackwater Jacks, Isabar, Posh, The Hellbound Rockclub @ Graffiti Club and Sanctuary Rock Bar. Burnley has a small gay scene, centred on the Garden Bar in St James Street. There are also chain-owned bars, such as Wetherspoons and Walkabout. The local brewery, Moorhouse's, was founded in 1865, and currently operates six pubs in the area, while more Bénédictine is drunk in one local working men's club, the Burnley Miners Club, than anywhere else in the world, after a local regiment stationed in Normandy during World War I brought back a taste for the drink. More on Burnley 

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