Manchester’s well-known outdoor venue, Freight Island, is taking New Year’s Eve into their own hands and kicking 2025 off with a bang, hosting a big fireworks display to remember.
The already impressive Twilight Trail, which gained a cult following online thanks to how fascinating it looks, is now becoming the home for Freight Island’s ‘Fireworks Extravaganza’.
Taking place in Mayfield Park, as soon as dusk hits, this 6.5-acre greenland site turns into a twinkling paradise fit for anyone who
At this highly anticipated event, marking the close of the illuminated trail for this year, kids even get free sparklers and marshmallow roasting to enjoy during their time at the park.
Sparklers at the ‘Firework Extravaganza’ at Mayfield Park.Watching the firework show at Mayfield Park.Soaking up the fun with lots of activities on this light trail.Mayfield Park gets super magical at this time of year. (Credit: Supplied)
There’s even music soundtracking your walk around the incredible environment courtesy of a Coronation Street star and Manchester-based collective, La Discothèque.
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Not only will you be visually treated, but you’ll also have a soulful soundtrack that sits easy on the ears too. Craig Charles is providing his ‘Trunk Of Funk, Volume 3’ compilation to send your eyes and ears on an unforgettable journey.
After immersing yourself in all that culture and exploration, taking yourself on a culinary experience is definitely overdue and Freight Island have made sure food is in large supply.
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All of the usual vendors currently in situ at Freight Island have come to check out the lights too with names like Burgerism, Voodoo Ray’s, Lazy Tony’s Lasagnaria and Oh My Cheesecake.
The firework show is taking place for 10 minutes at 8pm with a party event lined up straight after for those who want to enrich themselves in even more New Year celebrations.
Titled ‘The Little Disco’ and achieving a headline slot from Girls Of The Internet, the atmosphere is set to be electric at Freight‘s mainstay location just next door.
When purchasing your tickets for the initial firework show you automatically guarantee yourself an invite to the afterparty for free!
Tickets for Freight Island’s ‘New Year’s Eve Fireworks Extravaganza’ are already live and you can find them HERE.
Until then, if you’re looking to make the most of the festivities this holiday season, we’ve also put together a round-up of the best light trails in and around Greater Manchester. Enjoy!
The best things to do in Greater Manchester this week | 2 – 8 December 2024
Emily Sergeant
December is FINALLY here.
It’s been a long time coming, especially as we have been talking about Christmas here at The Manc for weeks on end now, but the most wonderful time of the year has arrived, and that means there’s absolutely loads of festive events and activities for the whole family to be getting up to across Greater Manchester this week.
Finding it a bit tricky to pick what to do though? We’ve chosen a few of the best bits for another edition of our ‘what’s on‘ guide to help you out.
Here’s some of our recommendations.
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Manchester Christmas Markets 2024
Manchester City Centre
Monday 2 – Sunday 22 December
Manchester Christmas Markets 2024 / Credit: Manchester City Council
Manchester Christmas Markets are now back open for 2024.
The iconic annual event is an absolute staple in Manchester’s festive events calendar, and always draws in thousands of visitors from all across the globe – with hundreds of stalls across several sites all lining the streets of our city centre.
Visitors are able to tuck into a wide range of festive foods and drinks, and shop for Christmas gifts from countless independent traders.
Find out everything you need to know about Manchester Christmas Markets 2024 here.
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Bar Hütte
Kampus & Great Northern
Monday 2 December – onwards
Bar Hütte / Credit: Supplied
Bar Hütte’s legendary karaoke cabins are back in Manchester once again.
Bringing Alpine vibes, cosy furnishings, twinkling lights, live music sessions, and flowing drinks to two city centre locations from this Thursday onwards, dozens of cosy private hüttes neatly-positioned under twinkling lights are now open down at both Kampus and Great Northern Square.
There’s also a handful of other events on the lineup throughout the festive season, including live music and DJs, wreath making workshops, and movie nights.
East Lancashire Railway’s beloved Santa steam train rides are back for more festive fun this Christmas.
Running right through until Christmas Eve, ELR’s ‘Santa Specials’ are your chance to hop on board an old-school steam train and travel through the magical Irwell Valley to make “enchanted memories” that last a lifetime.
The famous festive steam trains have become an essential part of Christmas for many families in the North West, and there’s still some tickets left available.
Skate Manchester 2024 / Credit: Matt Eachus (via Supplied)
What’s a festive season in the city without Skate Manchester?
Back once again for 2024, Skate Manchester is festive staple, and this year, skaters can glide across a gleaming ice path and spin around a dazzling seven-metre Christmas tree taking centre stage in the middle of the rink.
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Families, friends, and festive fun seekers will be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of Christmas whatever the weather has in store for our city this year too, as although the rink will be outdoors in the heart of Cathedral Gardens, the ice is fully covered.
A brand-new festive hub has arrived in Spinningfields, and you’ll be able to visit a new ice rink, drink cocktails in a snow globe-like rooftop dome, and get merry in a yurt.
Winter Assembly at Courts Club is home to the city’s newest, fully-independent ice rink, On Ice, as well as lots of different food traders serving up winter gyros from Lucky Gyros, festive grilled cheeses, boozy hot chocolate, German BBQ specials, and so much more.
Christmas Screenings at King Street Townhouse / Credit: KSTH
Elf, Love Actually, and Home Alone are just some of the classic Christmas films hitting the big screen at a hidden cinema in Manchester.
Film fans looking for some wholesome festive fun are being invited to get themselves down to one of Manchester’s most popular hotels, King Street Townhouse, in the run-up to the big day itself, as it’s very-own exclusive cinema will be screening a jam-packed lineup of fan-favourite festive films over the next couple of weeks.
The magnificent grounds of Tatton Park have been transformed into a ‘glittering winter adventure’ for the festive season.
Families will be whisked away into a world of folklore, enchantment, and enthralling performances as they enter the gardens of the stunning Tatton Park in Cheshire for an immersive, festival-like experience known as Yuletide.
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Organisers say the captivating event promises to be a “truly magical experience” where folklore stories come to life through storytelling and live music.
Spectrum: A World of Illumination / Credit: Supplied
A brand-new Christmas attraction to get us all in the festive spirit has now opened.
Just outside of Manchester, titled ‘Spectrum: A World of Illumination’, this spectacular never-seen-before trail is lighting up Cheshire with a month-long residency in Knutsford, and will be running every day in December besides Christmas Day, plus a few extra dates in November.
The immersive maze features moving giant candy canes, overhead Christmas-inspired installations like a laser show, and tunnels of light.
Not enough light trails on this list for your liking?
As the nights draw in and the temperatures drop, light trails are pretty much a given every time the festive season rolls around, and luckily, there’s plenty of them dotted across Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and across the North West this year.
If deciding which immersive experience to head on down to over these next couple of weeks is a tricky task for you though,
The Grotto at the Trafford Centre / Credit: Supplied
The main man is making our northern city his new home at one of Greater Manchester’s biggest shopping centres this winter time.
Running all the way up until Christmas Eve, Santa is swapping the cold air of the North Pole for the cloudy skies of Manchester, as he starts his annual journey around the world by making a visit to our region.
Not only is Santa travelling with his grotto, he’s also giving visitors the chance to experience the world of the North Pole as he brings the chilly destination to the Trafford Centre.
A major Jurassic World exhibition that’s been mesmerising visitors all over the world has now arrived here in Greater Manchester, and it’s recently been announced that it’ll be sticking around until the new year.
Based on the beloved blockbuster film franchise, this official award-winning experience is one of the fastest-selling exhibitions in history.
Manc visitors will be able to walk through the iconic Jurassic World gates, explore some richly-themed environments, and encounter a life-sized Brachiosaurus, Velociraptors, and the most fearsome dinosaur of all, the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Wicked The Musical / Credit: Jennifer DiNoia / Limited Engagement
Hold space for this one in your diaries… because Wicked The Musical is landing in Manchester from this week, and will be taking over the iconic Palace Theatre stage for the festive season.
Sure, there may be a major motion picture adaptation starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande currently on in the cinema right now, but if you’re keen to see the beloved musical production on stage in the way it was originally intended, then you can head on down to the Palace Theatre over the next couple of weeks to see the story of Elphaba and Galinda live.
Of course, this has been one of the hottest tickets in town for quite a while now, but there’ll still some last-minute seats left to get your hands on, so keep your eyes peeled.
Cheshire Oaks’ beloved grotto is back for 2024, and the big man in red and his trusty elves are taking to the skies once again this year.
Running on the Designer Outlet’s Big Wheel every Thursday to Sunday throughout December, the ‘Santa in the Sky’ experience is the perfect way to celebrate Christmas as a family this winter, and make memories to last a lifetime.
Looking for something else to do at Cheshire Oaks this month? There’s plenty of other festive events happening in the run-up to Christmas.
With alpine lodges, festive drinks, Yorkshire pudding wraps, and of course, a helter skelter, The Winter Village is now open at Cheshire Oaks.
Christmas films like Home Alone, The Grinch, and The Polar Express will also be screened in the lodge, and plus, did you know that Cheshire Oaks is home to the UK’s largest Christmas tree, that you can actually go inside?
Find out more and grab tickets to any events here.
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Lightwaves 2024
Salford Quays
Thursday 5 – Sunday 22 December
Lightwaves 2024 / Credit: MediaCity | Laszlo Toth
Lightwaves Salford is back this week.
Presented by Quays Culture and free for all to attend, this year’s Lightwaves Salford will feature 14 illuminated artworks along a 2km fully-accessible trail around MediaCity and Salford Quays, and the mesmerising immersive experience will include installations of different scale using light, sound, and technology.
The full experience will run from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 December, with a special extended run of the showstopping water based ‘Monad’ artwork overlooking MediaCity’s iconic Piazza until 22 December.
Put Big Light On Festival / Credit: Bolton Council
A festival full of fantastic immersive light art installations is set to shine on Bolton this weekend.
Back by popular demand after proving to be such a success during its inaugural year in 2023, with the first-of-its-kind event attracting more than 50,000 visitors, the Put Big Light On Festival is back for another year of festive magic.
The festival will take place right across Bolton town centre from this Thursday through to Sunday, and this year’s lineup feature magical’s creations from a diverse range of artists.
This is your chance to see some of Henry Orlik’s work live never before.
Fine art and sculpture company Winsor Birch is hosting a very special private art event presented by BBC’s Antique Roadshow Specialist, Grant Ford, at the stunning Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire this weekend, prior to a major 2025 art exhibition that’ll be heading to New York.
Highlights and masterpiece original paintings from the reclusive British surrealist that have not seen in decades will be showcased
Featured Image – Bolton Council | Skate Manchester | Jennifer DiNoia / Limited Engagement
Things To Do
Manchester’s major Jurassic World exhibition launches 50% off ticket sale
Emily Sergeant
You can now get yourself some tickets to the major Jurassic World exhibition that’s been mesmerising Mancs for half the price.
It’s fair to say that Jurassic World: The Exhibition has become a global success.
After initially launching in Melbourne, the immersive experience then went on excite dinosaur fans in numerous other cities globally, such as Tornonto, Chicago, Paris, Shanghai and Berlin, all before opening up in Greater Manchester down at the Trafford Centre back in August and welcoming tens of thousands of visitors since.
Because of this popularity, it was then announced last month that the award-winning experience based on the beloved blockbuster film franchise would be sticking around until the new year.
Manchester’s major Jurassic World exhibition is doing a half-price ticket sale for Black Friday / Credit: Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment (via Supplied)
This means that visitors now have even longer than initially anticipated to get to walk through the iconic Jurassic World gates, explore some richly-themed environments, and encounter a life-sized Brachiosaurus, Velociraptors, and the most fearsome dinosaur of all, the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex.
And if the exhibition‘s extension into 2025 wasn’t exciting enough as it is, a huge sale running for a limited time only means you can now get 50% off on tickets to visit over these next two months.
Anyone who takes advantage of the limited-time offer – which has been launched in honour of Black Friday – can imagine what it would’ve been like to roam amongst these breathtaking creatures, and even interact with baby dinosaurs like Bumpy from the popular animated series, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous – which is currently streaming on Netflix.
The Manchester event even features some additional fan-favourite dinosaurs from Jurassic World that haven’t been at the previous exhibitions too, so it really is worth a visit.
This exclusive half-price deal – which is eligible on selected dates in December 2024 and January 2025 – just launched this morning at 9am (28 November), and will be live for the next 27 hours before ending at 11:59pm this Sunday 1 December.
Thomas Melia -
28th November 2024 
