A huge communal roast dinner has been announced as part of the food line-up for free festival, We Invented the Weekend.
The new event in Salford will be bringing together class acts from the worlds of sports, music, comedy, theatre, dance, workshops, talks, food, charity, wellness, crafts and more over the weekend of 10-11 September.
Eat Well MCR, a collective of chefs and hospitality professionals led by Mary-Ellen McTague, will be throwing together all the best bits of a cosy Sunday.
There’ll be piles of newspapers, a Bloody Mary bar, and a giant communal Sunday roast, served up on ‘Salford’s longest table’.
The huge communal roast dinner will take place at MediaCityUK as part of the We Invented the Weekend festival
Mary-Ellen will cook up a roast rib of beef with all the trimmings – Yorkshire puddings, gravy, roast potatoes, buttered carrots, and cauliflower cheese – with a celeriac nut roast for vegetarians, and sticky toffee pudding to finish.
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Local vinyl reissue record label Be With Records will provide a laidback soundtrack, while Seven Bro7hers will create a special Weekend Beer for the occasion and will invite other breweries – including Shindigger and Manchester Union Lager – to join them.
Mary-Ellen McTague said: “We Invented the Weekend is such a wonderful idea and we’re delighted to get involved.
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“The festival celebrates a hard-won campaign for workers’ right to leisure time. Many of the families Eat Well MCR supports have a working parent – and yet still struggle to feed their families. It’s a subject very close to my heart.
Mary-Ellen McTague will cook up a giant Sunday roast for 200 people at Salford’s We Invented the Weekend festival. Credit: Unsplash
“I’m cooking 200 roast dinners for ticket holders and we’ll also be delivering some to the people in our community for free.”
There’ll be two sittings for Mary-Ellen’s Sunday roast feast, between 12pm and 2pm, and 3pm and 5pm, on Sunday 11 September.
Elsewhere at We Invented the Weekend, there’ll be street food celebrating cuisines from across the globe joining MediaCityUK’s existing Box on the Docks offering.
Traders will include Carnival (home-cooked Brazilian food), Desert Island Dumplings (vegan dishes, in deep-fried dumplings), House of Habesha (traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian dishes), Mama Sue’s (home-spiced frankfurters), Spuds and Bro (poutine), Paradiso (Italian desserts) and Wild Soul (vegan doughnuts).
There’ll also be loaded handmade potato waffles from Thief Street, pizzas from Dagi pizza, and smashed burgers from ex-Emmerdale star Adam Thomas’s Patty and Press.
Christmas Market favourites Panc will have plant-powered takes on burgers, kebabs, hot dogs, wtaps and desserts.
Then the resident businesses of MediaCityUK and Quayside, like Chapati Cafe, General Store, The Botanist and The Alchemist, will have festival specials over the weekend.
Get Baked announces delay to first Manchester bakery – and ‘monumental’ changes
Daisy Jackson
Get Baked has shared another major update on its move to Manchester – and while things are delayed, the plans are looking bigger than ever.
The viral bakery, famed for its gigantic chocolate ‘Bertha’, was set to open in the Northern Quarter in November.
But they’ve now confirmed the whole process has been delayed until February or spring next year.
The good news is that it’ll be worth the wait – Get Baked is now taking over the unit next door on Stevenson Square too, so it’s an even bigger space for its incredible coffee, pie, and a slice of its legendary 24-layer chocolate cake.
The Leeds-founded brand then teased that they’re bringing ‘monumental changes to our existing offering’ – and ones that ‘nobody will have seen coming’.
Whatever those changes are, they’ll then be rolled out to Get Baked’s Headingley store too.
Summing up what to expect in Manchester, they wrote: “It’ll sort of be like if Greggs shagged Gail’s but it happened in America so there’s sprinkles and unhealthy sh*t just absolutely everywhere.”
And explaining the delay, they said: “I announced the opening of Manchester a few months ago now, and explained that we were hoping for a November opening.
“That obviously hasn’t happened, which is sad, and unfortunately if you miss November, December is a bit of a write off because of Christmas, and so is January because tradespeople like to go back to work half way through the f*cking month.
“In all honesty though, even February is looking unlikely.
“The delay started (oxymoron?) because the renovation of our bakery took a lot longer than planned — we have doubled the size of the space that we moved into earlier in the year, which has been a lot of work, and it’s still ongoing.
“We have already outgrown the newly doubled space, but luckily for us, the unit next door to the one we have just taken, is now up for lease.
Get Baked announces delay to first Manchester bakery – and ‘monumental’ changes
“So, we’re taking that space too, which will mean not only will I be sh*tting my pants at the thought of our overheads, but we’ll also be in a position where we can finally rollout stores the way we want to.”
Their statement also said: “In regard to the pending concept changes, I’ll leave you with this…
“In 2021 when I restarted Get Baked, I had a vision to create my own version of Greggs.
“Greggs is a truly wonderful situation, but it’s got too big for its boots in many ways hasn’t it.
“I’ve never been able to live out my fantasy of creating my version of Greggs, but half a million slices of Bruce (and Bertha) later, I’m nearly there. F*ck Greggs?”
You can keep up with the latest updates on Get Baked Manchester HERE.
A huge Oasis-themed bar and music venue has opened in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
A new bar and gig venue that’s a shrine to all things Oasis is opening in Manchester city centre this week.
From memorabilia from the band’s history to artwork inspired by their work, Definitely Maybe is packed out with nods to the Gallagher brothers.
The bar has taken over the old Black Dog Ballroom site in the Northern Quarter, in the basement unit of Afflecks.
This huge Oasis bar splits into a few sections, from a live music stage to a mini gallery displaying memorabilia and posters.
There’s even a pair of Liam Gallagher’s Tommy Hilfiger pants suspended in one display unit.
Other items on display include one of Noel’s guitars (and a few more signed replicas), a pair of Liam’s maracas, early photography and sketches, and live gig photography.
Inside Definitely Maybe, a new Oasis themed bar in Manchester. Credit: The Manc Group
There are even Oasis lyrics scrawled along the wall of the bar, and globe-shaped light fixtures.
You can play pool, make use of the free photobooth, and sip on themed cocktails while feeling like a Rock n Roll Star.
Oasis-inspired cocktails include the Pina Columbia, the Strawberry Lemonade, and the She’s Electric.
Entry to the bar costs £5, but you’ll get a drinks token in return – or you can buy a membership for the rest of the year for just £6.
Definitely Maybe is already a well-loved name in Bolton and now it’s here in the city centre ready to help you live our your Rock n Roll Star dreams.
Daisy Jackson -
15th August 2022 
