A taste of Munich will come to Manchester this autumn, when Freight Island hosts an enormous Oktoberfest celebration.
The massive event will celebrate Bavarian beer in a big way, with live entertainment and even a bratwurst menu.
Taking place on Friday 29 and Saturday 30 September, Oktoberfest Festival at Freight Island will see the venue transformed into an all-singing, all-dancing Bavarian beer hall.
There’ll be long wooden tables and traditional bunting installed as the Bavarian beers start flowing.
Traditional-style beers being poured during the two-day event will include Paulaner, Paulaner Weissbier, Lowenbrau, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest, Flotzinger Wies’n, Marzen, Spaten Oktoberfest, Hofbräu Oktoberfest, Braybrooke Harvest Festbier, Cloudwater Oktoberfest, Newbarns Festbier, and Donzoko Festbier.
ADVERTISEMENT
Freight Island’s Oktoberfest event will be soundtracked by a live Oompah band.
An Oktoberfest event is coming to Freight Island in Manchester. Credit: Supplied
There are two options available for tickets to the Oktoberfest Festival in Manchester.
ADVERTISEMENT
The £12.50 ticket price includes your full session, two pints of beer, access to exclusive drinks, and a traditional German bier stein to take home with you.
Or there are free tickets available, which get you access to the full session and all the exclusive beers on offer.
Manchester United fans planning protest over significant ticket price increase
Danny Jones
Manchester United fans are reportedly planning a large-scale protest outside Old Trafford following a recent ticket price increase.
The club announced the sudden price hike for official Man United members earlier this week, removing the concession discount for all ticket options, which means that no matter your age or accessibility needs, games will cost £66 for the rest of the 24/25 campaign.
Seemingly decided overnight, the changes have been put into immediate effect, meaning from now until May 2025, adult fans looking to grab a standard ticket to the match will have to pay an extra £16 for the pleasure – the last thing people want to hear during the festive period and wider cost of living crisis.
As a result of the steps taken by the higher-ups, the official Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) has issued an official statement, calling the decision “offensive” and warning that this could signal something bigger and more severe next season. Not unlike the club, one group is acting now.
As an associated member of the FSA and together with Everton supporters group, we will be protesting (peacefully) on Sunday before the game to support their current #StopExploitingLoyalty… pic.twitter.com/tT1cKYUbkW
Supporters group The 1958, who helped spearhead the most recent slate of anti-Glazer demonstrations. between 2021 and 2023, say they contacted the club to ask for permission to bring a banner reading ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty into the crowd but “unfortunately they didn’t even have the courtesy to reply.”
Having “demanded” the ticket price increase be reversed, they sent an extensive letter to the club this week; in an effort to remain transparent, they shared the correspondence in full on their website.
Addressing recently appointed CEO Omar Berrada (formerly of the City Football Group) directly, the letter expressed, in short, their “anger and disappointment” over the new prices, labelling it “exploitation of our loyal fan base”, highlighting the new obstruction to not only young but pension-age and disabled supporters as a “disgusting low blow”.
Suggesting that this could start a trend of fans ultimately being forced to sell their season tickets only for them to be immediately resold at a higher price, they described the strategy as ‘corporate touting’ and “the first step towards dynamic pricing”.
As a result, although United are set to play in the Europa League on Thursday night, the crucially peaceful demonstration outside the home ground will be held with associated members of the Football Supporters Association (FSA) and Everton fans before their Premier League game this weekend.
The new flat-rate Man United ticket price which has sparked protest plans. (Credit: screenshot)
To put this into context, these new minimum prices mean that it would cost a grand total of £132 just for a parent to take their child to a match this season, and all of this inflation has happened without any consultation with supporters’ groups.
As for MUST, they called out the club’s insistence that 97% of this current season’s tickets are now sold, questioning the veracity of this claim and also going on to share the fear “that this is only the opening salvo of what will surely be massive pressure to implement a significant price rise for next season.”
With INEOS having carried out a raft of cost-cutting measures, including getting rid of 250 members of staff – which is also said to have cost them £8.6 million in redundancy packages – the is clearly part of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and co. plans to streamline the business which is still approximately £867 million in debt.
Nevertheless, it now looks like fans are the next to pay for the policy and although will no doubt be lofted by the arrival of their new manager, Rúben Amorim, until results improve and prices are reduced or at the very least frozen, it’s looking like it could be another fraught period at the Theatre of Dreams.
Urgent discussions! It needs more direct action than that, call a boycott or a protest march.
NHS urges public to use 111 and not A&E over Christmas except for ‘life-threatening emergencies’
Emily Sergeant
The public is being urged to use NHS 111 instead of going to A&E over the festive period unless it’s a serious injury or a life-threatening emergency.
After it was estimated that a significant number of A&E attendances are either “avoidable” or “could be better treated elsewhere”, the NHS’s top A&E doctor is now calling on the British public to make full use of 111 services this winter, instead of heading straight to their nearest emergency department if it’s not necessary.
Ahead of Christmas, which is always one of the busiest times of the year for for NHS, Professor Julian Redhead is asking people to only to use 999 or A&E services for life threatening emergencies and serious injuries.
If this isn’t the case, they should otherwise “get to the help they need by calling or using 111 online” or via the NHS App.
It is estimated that up to two-fifths of A&E attendances are avoidable or could be better treated elsewhere.
NHS 111 is an easy and convenient way for people to get urgent help for a wide range of health problems. Call, go online or use the NHS App.
Following a record few months of A&E and ambulance demand, the pressure is now said to have risen across other parts of the NHS – with the health service believed to be going into winter busier than ever before.
“We know that up to two-fifths of A&E attendances could be better treated elsewhere, as well as one in six calls to 999 just needing advice over the phone,” Professor Redhead explained. “So I really want to encourage everyone to use our free, around the clock 111 service that can give millions of people this winter fast, safe and easy access to the advice or treatment they need.”
NHS 111 is described as being an “easy and convenient” way for people to get urgent help for a wide range of health problems from the comfort of their own home.
NHS urges the public not to go to A&E over Christmas except for in ‘life-threatening emergencies’ / Credit: NHS Digital
The service – which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week – can assess and direct people to the most appropriate local service, including urgent treatment centres, GP practices, and consultations with a pharmacist.
If needed, the service can arrange a call back from a nurse, doctor, or paramedic, or provide self-treatment advice over the phone.
Daisy Jackson -
24th September 2023 
