One of the biggest bike ride events in the country, dubbed a ‘carnival on wheels’, is coming to Manchester this year.
The Black Unity Bike Ride (BUBR) was set up in London following the murder of George Floyd, which took place on 25 May 2020 and set shockwaves around the world.
Now, as the event is looking to reach across the UK, the event celebrating Black culture, joy, empowerment and unity is coming to our city region and its surrounding areas for the first time ever.
It’s set to be a truly brilliant and inspiring event.
Teaming up with London Marathon Events (LME) once again, the mass participation veterans have been lending expertise since 2021, and now they’ve reached a new five-year agreement to help continue strengthening BUBR and, hopefully, create a national movement by setting up in two new cities.
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Manchester marks the first stage of the Black Unity Bike Ride expansion, which will see thousands take to cycling from Alexandra Park in Moss Side on a 12-mile route through the city and back to the beautiful outdoor space.
Aiming to mirror the success of the flagship BUBR event down in the capital, Manc participants and supporters can expect a vibrant, ‘festival feel’ with pumping music throughout.
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Back at Alexandra Park, there’ll be even a huge pop-up home base for the event, bringing together Greater Manchester’s Black community with a big food and vendor village, more music and an uplifting atmosphere all day long.
The inaugural Manchester event will come just a fortnight after the sixth annual edition of the founding Black Unity Bike Ride in London, which sees waves of cyclists take on 17 miles, starting at Leyton Sports Ground and finishing in Dulwich Park.
Credit: Black Unity Bike Ride Manchester (supplied)
Promising route leaders, cheer zones and pitstops on the route, plenty of music, not to mention various indie food and drink traders pulling from a wide range of different ethnicities and cuisines, it’s this kind of full-on festival energy that BUBR Manchester is striving to capture.
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Once again, it’s a ‘carnival on wheels’.
BUBR MCR 2025 will take place on Sunday, 17 August, the birthday of Marcus Mosiah Garvey, a key political activist – the forefather of the ‘Garveyism ideology – as well as publisher, journalist and orator who has his own national day named after him in his home country of Jamaica.
He advocated for the empowerment and rights of African descendants and founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA), in addition to organising America’s first-ever Black nationalist movement.
You can see the event documentary film, which chronicles last year’s Black Unity Bike Ride in full down below. It really is a moving watch – pardon the pun.
It’s also worth noting that the Black Unity Bike Ride Fest is completely FREE, as the goal is to get as many people as possible. You can sign up
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BUBR founder, Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa, said of the upcoming event: “What began as a bold idea on London’s streets has grown into a national movement. We are very excited to bring the event to Manchester, it has been an aspiration for a few years so we can’t wait until Sunday, 17 August.”
“BUBR has valued London Marathon Events’ support since 2021, and we are very proud to extend this relationship with a new five-year commitment. The partnership is a true statement of intent when it comes to community, inclusion and inspiring active lives.”
BUBR has been to Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana and more; Manchester is up next and there’ll be another new home in 2026.
Bernardo Silva shares hilarious X-rated clash with John Stones before they were teammates
Danny Jones
This long weekend not only saw Man City manager and sporting legend Pep Guardiola bid goodbye to the club after a decade, but so did John Stones and Bernardo Silva, and the latter shared a hilarious story about an encounter before their bromance in blue.
Can’t lie, this one nearly made us spit out our tea when we first watched it…
Following the trio’s respective final games, this late May bank holiday Monday saw yet another City parade pass through Manchester, and as the party continued over at the Etihad Campus and Co-op Live for the afterparty, the boys got up on stage to say some parting words.
In Silva’s case, he chose to share, rather fittingly, some very choice words indeed, as he talked about his time playing against Stones when he was still in France.
From ‘little soft c**t’ to brothers lifting trebles together… football heritage.
Safe to say no one was expecting that particular expletive to come out of his mouth – we reckon not even most of the squad themselves.
During the Yorkshireman‘s first season at Manchester City, he came up against the creative midfielder in the Champions League when he was still playing at Ligue 1 side AS Monaco.
As you can see in the clip above, while it wasn’t the friendliest of exchanges back then, they soon buried the hatchet and chalked it off as nothing more than football.
Both fierce competitors in their own right, they look to be plenty soft with each other off the pitch ever since they became teammates.
So much so, in fact, that the duo ended up being the face of a pop-up Man City pub earlier this month, recreating the famous photo of the Gallagher brothers wearing the 1993/94 kits.
Credit: Manchester City FC (publicity pictures)
It’s plain to see in the clip how much love there is between the two, all these years later, and the story itself got a rapturous reaction from their peers and the crowd alike.
Silva has plenty of fans across Europe, both as a player and purely as a character; you only have to look at how Jack Grealish often reiterates his love for the Portuguese playmaker as a person and Premier League character, or even how pundits aligned with rival clubs like Gary Neville waxes lyrical about him.
And then we come to Pep himself.
Guardiola was rightfully given a fantastic guard of honour at the stadium itself on Sunday, with his speech making for an emotional moment for all those in the stands and watching at home, and City supporters at the parade made sure to give him a proper send-off.
Featured Images — Manchester City FC/CITY+ (screenshot via YouTube)
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Manchester’s The Grosvenor pub set to host huge England fan zone with Fireball for 2026 World Cup
Danny Jones
With the 2026 World Cup fast approaching, there’ll obviously be tonnes of places showing the game, but there’s only one place that’s promising big screens, ball pits, pool tables, ping pong, a ‘peep show’ and plenty more right from the off: The Grosvenor.
It doesn’t hurt that they’re teaming up with beloved booze brand Fireball to spice things up.
We hope the goals come easily for England this tournament, but we can assure the drinks will be free-flowing regardless, over at The Grosvenor on Oxford Road Corridor here in Manchester city centre.
Located just on the corner of (you guessed it) Grosvenor St and the busy Oxford Rd stretch, they’re already getting geared up for tournament time…
Teaming up with the famous cinnamon whisky liqueur, the popular student and matchday spot is set to be busier than ever for this year’s World Cup.
As for what they have in store for the North American edition of FIFA’s biggest competition and the ultimate celebration of the beautiful game, besides numerous England flags hanging from the walls and that beautiful ceiling, there’ll be plenty of music, England anthems, giveaways and top-tier atmosphere.
In addition to lots of chanting from yourselves, no doubt, there’ll be DJ sets and merch up for grabs, as well as lots of big wigs, St George’s glasses and foam hands floating around the room.
Credit: The Grosvenor (supplied)
Of course, there will also be wall-to-wall coverage of the games across their many screens around the venue, not least of all the big box sitting pride of place above the bar itself.
With two large floors and more intimate seating options upstairs, there are plenty of ways to watch Thomas Tuchel’s team fly the flag.
Kicking off with the Three Lions’ opening clash against Croatia on Wednesday, 17 June, the venue will be transformed into a sea of red and white, and guests will also be treated to a completely FREE shot of Fireball every single time England score.
Don’t mind if we do.
Naturally, with stuff like this on offer, fans are encouraged to grab their tickets for the fixtures as early as possible so as not to miss out.
In their words AND ours, “From the first whistle to the final anthem, The Grosvenor is set to become one of Manchester’s home ends for the World Cup.”
You can reserve your tickets from just £3 for The Grosvenor Fireball Fanzone – along with plenty of cheap pints and affordable food and drink packages – right HERE.
(Don’t say, don’t say it, don’t say it) It’s coming home…
Danny Jones -
22nd July 2025 
