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We Are Football Festival – Europe’s biggest World Cup fan park is opening in Manchester

4TheFans is back, bigger, and better

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 10th April 2026

The largest World Cup fan park in all of Europe is set to open in Manchester this summer, in an ambitious project from 4TheFans, in partnership with Freight Island and Broadwick.

The We Are Football Festival will bring together 15,000 football fans in front of the biggest screens in the UK to cheer on England as they race for World Cup glory. 

The enormous fan park will open in June at Depot Mayfield, transforming the space into an unrivalled celebration of football.

Fans will be immersed in all the action thanks to a massive sound system, pyrotechnics, CO2 cannons, DJs, and entertainment around the games themselves, providing the closest thing you can get to a big game atmosphere. 

The venue will be open for all late kick-offs and every moment of the World Cup too, with the potential for some games to run well into the early hours. 

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Fans can head to the rooftop or garden at Depot Mayfield for a 5pm kick-off in the sunshine, or enjoy late-night games in the warehouse. 

We Are Football Festival by 4TheFans
We Are Football Festival by 4TheFans
The fan park will open at Depot Mayfield
The fan park will open at Depot Mayfield
It's set to be Europe's biggest World Cup fan zone
It’s set to be Europe’s biggest World Cup fan zone

There’ll also be a dedicated Footy Fun Village, which will feature sponsor activations, games zones, and family-friendly areas, creating a safe space for fans of all ages to enjoy the tournament. 

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And 4TheFans and Freight Island will deliver hand-picked and exclusive bar and food traders from around the world.

We Are Football Festival will welcome a special 4TheFans host plus Sky Sports presenters, and will even have genuine England football legends for quality match analysis at each screening. 

Since launching, 4TheFans has welcomed hundreds of thousands of fans, and camera crews from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News, Sky Sports, England TV, and Match of the Day, to fan parks across the UK.

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It’s now chosen Depot Mayfield for its World Cup fan park, where they can fill the huge space at Freight Island first before scaling into the rest of the Depot as the fan community grows and the Three Lions march on. 

4TheFans is the UK’s original and biggest fan park brand, and it’s working with Freight Island and Broadwick to deliver this game-changing We Are Football Festival – the biggest and best fan park in Europe. 

5,000 early bird tickets are available from just £4.50 per person and are on sale HERE. 

4TheFans presents We Are Football Festival will run at Depot Mayfield from 11 June until 19 July 2026. 

General admission tickets include

  • 4TheFans interactive show with on-stage banter from a Sky Sports presenter
  • Football legend in attendance
  • Guaranteed entry to the event
  • The most enormous anti-glare screens in the UK and a monster sound system
  • Special effects, lighting, DJ sets and music from doors till close
  • Access to Footy Fun Village with games, activations and family areas
  • Food from around the world and an exclusive bar traders

VIP table tickets include

  • VIP table section with the best view of the giant screens and the event
  • Meet and greet with a football legend
  • 4TheFans interactive show with on-stage banter from a Sky Sports presenter
  • Guaranteed entry to the event
  • The most enormous anti-glare screens in the UK and a monster sound system
  • Special effects, lighting, DJ sets and music from doors till close
  • Access to Footy Fun Village with games, activations and family areas
  • Food from around the world and an exclusive bar traders

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Featured image: Supplied

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Hordes of people dressed as giant poos run through Manchester for bowel cancer awareness

Danny Jones Danny Jones

If you happened to be in town on Thursday and noticed a bunch of people dressed as giant poos running through the city centre and wondered, ‘What the hell is going on?’, it was this…

We know Manchester has a serious case of the runs, what with the annual Marathon and Great Manchester race, both just around the corner (one literally just next week), but this takes the cake.

On a more heartfelt note, although there is an obvious and innate silliness to this now annual get-together, it’s all for a very important and worthwhile cause.

Uniting for a fourth time, the Pall Mall Medical team (along with a couple of us here at The Manc) are hoping to flush out the stigma and silence surrounding bowel cancer awareness.

blaze running club
blaze run club manchester
Credit: The Manc Group

Starting from Pall Mall’s very own clinic on King St, more than 105 runners laced up their shoes and popped on emoji suits, toilet costumes, daft poo hats and more for a 5k jog around the city centre alongside local run club, Blaze.

They even tried to make the route in the shape of a poo, too.

Why such a specific number, you ask? Well, that’s the exact number of people who are sadly diagnosed with bowel cancer across the North West every single week.

It’s an alarming statistic, but once you pair it with the fact that they make up the rising number of new cases being reported in the country – more than a whopping 41,000 each year – you can see why they’re desperate to get more people talking about the disease.

Moreover, the rate among under 50s has also seen a concerning rise since the 90s, but this also means that the earlier it’s caught, the better people like Pall Mall can help with treatment.

The sooner it’s spotted, the greater the chance of survival, with 90% of those diagnosed at the earliest possible stage surviving for five years or more; that’s why these lot are hoping to better the discourse around bowel-related issues.

Besides offering important scans and blood tests for numerous health conditions, they also boast the dedicated and revolutionary ColoAlert® testing service, which is a German import that’s more accurate (around 85%) and effective than most others here in the UK.

runners manchester city centre
poo protests run
poo run route bowel cancer awareness
A lovely bunch of sh**heads… (Credit: The Manc)

It has quite literally proved to be a life-changing bit of kit for so many, and for Pall Mall’s Dr Chun Tang, this whole initiative has a deep personal connection.

Having sadly lost his father to the illness, as well as his brother being diagnosed with bowel cancer, he knows all too well how important increasing the conversation is – bowel cancer being the second biggest killer in the UK after lung conditions.

Even before you book in a check-up, Dr Tang says it’s simple to spot noteworthy signs at home: “Any blood in the stools, streaks in your poo, on the pan or on the paper; any changes in your digestion such as diarrhoea, constipation and [continued] fatigue, then see your GP or come visit us at Pall Mall.”

Best of all, the money raised with the latest ‘Poo Protest’ all goes towards Bowel Cancer UK, so well done to everyone involved.

For once, we couldn’t be happier to hear so many people talking sh**.

Throughout April, Pall Mall are offering £75 off the ColoAlert® Bowel Cancer stool test, and 20% off the Virtual Colonoscopy in Aprilo. To find out more about the event and book an appointment, you can click right HERE.

dr tang pall mall
pall mall medical manchester
Credit: The Manc

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Featured Images — The Manc Group

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‘A new kind of night out’ – new competitive social games venue opens in Manchester city centre

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

A brand-new competitive social games venue is opening in Manchester city centre this week, bringing a completely original format to the city’s nightlife scene.

Gameface has made itself at home inside Manchester‘s Printworks complex.

Built around 10 games designed and developed from scratch, Gameface turns a standard night out into a fast-paced, shared experience.

The 5,400 sq ft venue has capacity for 120 players and has been created by CONDUCTR, the creative innovation studio powered by technology, meaning every game has been built in-house – with bespoke mechanics and technology developed specifically for the experience.

Having been in development for over a year now, and becoming the first venue for the brand – with further expansion planned in the future – Gameface joins an already-competitive socialising scene at Printworks, alongside venues like Boom Battle Bar, Tenpin, and Treetop Golf.

However, unlike existing concepts, all games at Gameface are completely original and do not exist anywhere else.

So, how does it work then? Well, groups move between games in a 60-minute session, competing for points across physical, reactive, and problem-solving challenges, before heading straight to the bar.

Rather than putting technology front and centre, Gameface uses it to ‘quietly power’ the experience.

Score tracking, reactive gameplay, and dynamic challenges all sit behind the scenes, designed to make each game feel intuitive, fast and competitive from the first round.

New competitive social games venue Gameface opens in Manchester city centre / Credit: Supplied

There are no long instructions or complicated rules. Players arrive, tap in, and start competing within seconds, so the result is apparently something ‘closer to a house party than a traditional activity venue’.

“It’s a night out where you’re actually doing something,” explained Leanne Casey, who is the General Manager at Gameface. “You’re moving, competing, laughing, and it gets competitive almost instantly. People care about the score quicker than they expect.”

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Alongside gameplay, Gameface also features a fully stocked bar and is designed for group occasions including birthdays, team socials, and nights out.

Bookings are now open at gamefacebar.com, so what are you waiting for? Get playing.

Featured Image – Supplied

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