Legal
Cookie policy
This page lists every cookie this site actually sets, what each one is for and how long it lasts. Nothing except your own cookie choice is stored on your device until you tell us it can be.
Last updated 31 August 2026
Nothing fires before you choose
The order things happen in is what matters, and it is worth stating plainly because it is the part that is usually got wrong.
Before anything else loads, this site sets Google Consent Mode v2 to deny on analytics, advertising, personalisation and functionality storage. The only category granted by default is security storage, which is what stops a form being abused. Those defaults are set before Google Tag Manager loads, not after it, so there is no window in which a tag runs unrestricted.
Tag Manager then waits half a second for a stored choice before it lets anything act. If you have chosen before, your choice is read back from your browser and applied. If you have not, the banner appears and nothing non-essential runs until you press one of its three buttons.
The three choices
- Necessary only. Nothing is stored except the record of that choice. No analytics cookie and no advertising cookie is set.
- Analytics only. Google Analytics may set the two cookies listed below, so we can see which pages are read and which are not. Advertising and personalisation stay denied.
- Accept all. Analytics as above, plus advertising and personalisation storage, which is what an advertising tag would need if one were installed. None is, see below.
Choosing Necessary only does not switch the site off. Every page, every form and every link works exactly the same either way.
Consent Mode and signals without cookies
Where a Google tag is configured and consent is denied, Google's Consent Mode may still send a signal that stores nothing on your device and does not identify you. It is used to estimate totals. No cookie is written, and nothing about it survives on your browser after you close it.
What is actually set
Three entries, and one of them is only your own choice written down. Anything added to this site is added to this table in the same change.
| Name | Type | Set by | What it does | How long | Category |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
mcs-consent | Browser storage, not a cookie | This site | Records which of the three cookie choices you made, so the banner is not shown to you again and your choice is applied on every page you open afterwards. | Until you change your choice or clear your browser storage | Strictly necessary |
mcs-gate | Browser storage, not a cookie | This site | Records that you entered the pre-launch passphrase on this device, so you are not asked for it again on every page. It holds no information about you. | Until you clear your browser storage, or until the site opens publicly | Strictly necessary |
_ga | Cookie, first party | Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager | Tells one browser apart from another, so a visit can be counted once rather than on every page. | Two years | Analytics |
_ga_6BX9KC088J | Cookie, first party | Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager | Holds the state of a single visit for the MCS analytics property. | Two years | Analytics |
No advertising cookie is set by this site
The banner offers an advertising category because the choice has to be recorded now, but no advertising or social media tag is installed. There is no Meta pixel [TBC:meta-pixel] and no LinkedIn tag [TBC:linkedin-id] on this site today. If one is added, this page is updated before it goes live.
No login, no basket, no session
This site is a set of static pages. There is no account to create, no shopping basket and no server session, so there is no login or session cookie. Tickets are not sold here.
The fonts and images are ours
The brand typefaces and every photograph are served from this domain. No font network, no content delivery network and no image host is contacted when you open a page, so none of them can set anything.
The Google map
Two pages carry a map, and they do not behave the same way. The difference is deliberate, so it is written down rather than left to be discovered.
A Google map is an embedded frame served by Google. When it loads, your browser contacts Google directly and Google may set its own cookies on its own domains. MCS does not set them, cannot read them and cannot switch them off from here. What they are used for is covered by Google's own privacy policy.
On the homepage the map waits
It does not load until you either click it, or choose something other than Necessary only. Until then it is a placeholder, and Google is not contacted.
On Getting here the map loads on entry
On Getting here the map loads as soon as the page opens, before you have made a cookie choice, because that page exists to answer "how do I get there" and a map behind a click answers it badly. Google may set its cookies at that point. If you would rather that did not happen, the venue address, the driving times and the three bus routes are all written out as text on the same page, and the map adds nothing you cannot read there.
Change your choice
Withdrawing consent has to be as easy as giving it, so the control is here rather than buried in your browser settings.
The button below clears the record of your choice and reloads the page, which brings the banner back with everything denied again. You can then choose differently. You can also delete cookies and site data for this domain in your browser at any time, which has the same effect.