The adidas Manchester Marathon is back for 2024 and the region is already getting set for thousands of Mancs to take on the annual challenge.
Not only the second-largest race of its kind in the UK but the fourth most popular in all of Europe, the Manchester Marathon welcomes more than 30,000 runners every year and even more spectators from all over the continent. We’re talking around 125,000 people lining the 26.2-mile route. Yowza.
With an unprecedented demand for places at this year’s event, which has been running rather unbelievably since 1908 (no pun intended), this year’s Manchester Marathon on Sunday, 14 April 2024 is genuinely set to be the biggest yet.
So if you’re taking part or just cheering the competitors on from the sidelines, here’s everything you need to know about the 2024 adidas Manchester Marathon.
Manchester Marathon Route, waves and timings
The 2024 Manchester Marathon map.The start line.Along the way, runners can expect to take in some of Manc’s most iconic landmarks, from Bridgewater Hall and the Beetham Tower to the Theatre of Dreams itself and many more
As with previous years, the route will start and end over in Trafford. Participants will set off underneath Trafford Arch at White City Circle, making their way past Old Trafford before heading back towards the city centre via Chorlton and Hulme.
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After reaching the city centre, runners will then head towards Stretford, passing through Sale before turning off as they approach Timperley and eventually reach Altrincham around the 16-mile mark.
The final leg of the route will take runners through Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, with Talbot Road leading you back to the finish line. For those feeling any nerves (like the runner currently writing this), you’ll be glad to know the Manchester Marathon is one of the flattest in the country.
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You can see the full breakdown of timings and coloured waves down below. You can also watch the full virtual run-through of the running route HERE.
Event Village – entry points, bag drop, toilets and more
Event Village will once again be based around the Emirates Old Trafford, home of Lancashire County Cricket Club, where participants will also be able to find entry points to the start line.
Info points, bag drops and toilet facilities will also be available around the pre and post-race complex, along with first aid tents and dedicated access routes from nearby parking spots and local transport.
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Event Village will be strictly open to runnersbetween 7:30–10:30am, operating on a one-way system, before being opened up to the thousands of supporters expected to line the streets.
You can see a full map of the area down below, including where to drop your bags and nip to the loo before you set off on your race – and don’t worry, there will be places to stop for the toilet along the route if nature is annoying enough to calls.
To help you familiarise yourself with your surroundings.
Road closures for the Manchester Marathon
The road closures for this year’s marathon include the A56 (Northbound and Southbound), with the officials set to start closing roads at 3am and begin re-opening roads from 2pm onwards after the course begins to clear.
The last closed road is expected to re-open around 8pm through Chorlton and Old Trafford towards the end of the course.
You can find further details on road closure and what other parts of Greater Manchester are set to be impacted HERE.
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Travel advice
As mentioned, road closure will obviously impact people coming in and out of the city as well as to various spots along the marathon route, so whether you’re a local or travelling in from elsewhere, it’s worth knowing where to be and where’s best to avoid too.
In a nutshell, it’s expected that public transport will be very busy before, during and after the race, but the Metrolink trams still remain the best way to get around. Bus routes will be being diverted.
People have been asked to leave their cars at home or use park and rides where possible due to all the road closures, displaced traffic and expected congestion.
It goes without saying that there will also be a significant number of road closures throughout Sunday as well. However, once again, the wonderful organisers have you covered; you can see the full list of closures HERE and they have even put together an interactive map for you to check what’s shut when:
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Public transport
People are also being advised to leave their cars at home where possible to avoid the busy roads, or to at least use the free park-and-ride services on the way into Manchester and travel to their destinations via our city’s wonderful tram network.
Metrolink will be operating a six-minute frequency on the Altrincham line with more double trams and increased capacity along various other lines too. That being said, services are expected to be extremely busy throughout the day, so if you can travel flexibly, the predicted quietest time to travel is around 4pm.
Once you’ve tapped on and tapped off, most fan corners, cheer zones and regular spots for supporters to gather together should only be a short walk away from your chosen tram stop.
New mascots, event shirts and the 2024 finisher’s medals picked by the public
This year, the adidas Manchester Marathon also welcomes on board a brand new mascot, Chester the Bee, who will join the event’s much-loved existing mascot, Manny the Bee to help bring extra cheer to the festivities on the day.
As we all know and love, Manchester has a vibrant LGBTQIA+ community and, as the organisers said in a press release, “introducing mascots that celebrate this diversity allows the marathon to reflect these identities within Greater Manchester. It’s a way to honour the unique contributions and experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals and showcase their pride within the larger community.”
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Better still, the organisers donate £1 for every participant taking on the marathon straight to the Trafford Active Fund, which offers local groups the chance to receive a special allocation of funding to build a long-lasting sport and physical activity legacy in Greater Manchester. Money from the marathon also goes towards planting trees across the region through the Green Runner scheme.
You can also see what this year’s general public selected as the design for this year’s Manchester Marathon finisher’s medal design down below. It’s a pretty one.
Thousands of you voted on the colour of the 2024 medal. We can now reveal the official 2024 adidas Manchester Marathon medal is… GOLD! 🥇
A big thank you to Marv, Abbie, Alex and Andrew from Manchester Run Club and Chorlton Runners for revealing our 2024 medal. pic.twitter.com/yYancbt4Lr
With a record 32,000+ runners set to hit the streets of 0161 this year, we cannot wait for people all over the ten boroughs to get soaked up in the spirit of the day.
It’s genuinely one of the most wholesome dates on the calendar and we’re just praying for a sunny day to make it perfect.
It’s also estimated that the event will raise around £3.5 million for hundreds of charities, with nearly 2,000 places allocated to representatives from Alzheimer’s Society, Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and The Christie. You absolutely love to see it.
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Good luck to everyone taking part on the day — you’re all going to absolutely smash it.
Five Manchester artists we’ve been listening to this month | May 2025
Danny Jones
Oh, hey, didn’t see you there. Come looking for more top Manc tunage, have we? You’re in luck, because Greater Manchester just keeps pumping out top bands and artists all the time, hence why we do this.
If you’re new around these parts, first of all, welcome and secondly, the whole thing is very simple: every month, we round up some of the best talents coming out of 0161 and talk about why we like them. I know, groundbreaking stuff, right?
They don’t have to be born and bred in Manchester, but they do need to have made this their music home – the first the correct career decision they made, the second being working their way into our ears.
So, now all the housekeeping is done and dusted, let’s dive into some delightful new Manchester music, shall we?
Five Manc bands and artists we’ve been listening to recently
1. IST IST
This month we’re starting off with one of those Manchester bands that may not be new but still crop up for us at regular intervals to remind us of two things: first of all, that they’re brilliant and secondly, that they should have featured on our regular round-up of artists a long time ago.
We’re talking about IST IST, who returned with another live, multiple LP-spanning compilation (plus some extras) this past March, which we’ve had on plenty over the past month. It goes without saying that they sound brilliant live, and we feel bad for only just remembering how good and prolific they’ve been.
You always get plenty of New Order, but also White Lies and Editors; Future Islands, The National and lots of other baritone-driven bands that bring that element of melodrama to layer over the instruments themselves. ‘You’re Mine’ might be their biggest track, but ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Exist’ are also favourites.
2. Robbie Cavanagh
Now, we all know that country music is having a real moment right now and we, for one, couldn’t be happier about it, to be completely frank. Though arguably simplistic at times, it’s soulful, often impressively pared-back, and when something does impress you lyrically or technically, it sticks.
With that in mind, we recently realised that award-winning songwriter Robbie Cavanagh has been on somewhat of a comeback since 2023, and we hadn’t noticed until painfully recently. Returning after a six-year hiatus – bar some little ditties during lockdown – his latest project has some of his best work yet.
Fully tilting from folk into country and folk, the stunning vocalist belatedly blew us away with the bluesy single ‘Helpless’ and a gorgeous new collaboration with solo artist, Abby Gundersen (equally talented sister of Noah), but please still start with his 2016 Mahogany Session, where it arguably all began.
Named after Manchester city centre’s famously eclectic indie emporium, Afflecks Palace have never quite blown up in the way they way we thought they would when we first came across them years ago, but there’s still plenty of time and we’ll be damn it if they don’t deserve more regular listeners.
You’ll also be glad to know that, despite the name, they aren’t one of those trite, overly performative bands who wear a stereotypical Manc-ness on their sleeve that we sometimes come across; they’re just good and deserve a lot more recognition for their contribution to the neo-pysch genre.
As for where to start, we’ll admit we prefer their first album; ‘Forever Young’ is noodley and catchy, ‘Everything Is an Attempt to Be Human’ has those shoegazey guitars, but it just doesn’t get better than the incomparable ‘Pink Skies’, which still makes us feel some type of way – we just can’t quite describe.
We just love it. ‘Nu-Madchester’, or whatever you want to call it, its distinct sunniness never fails to tickle a part of our brains.
4. Findlay
Next up is Stockport singer-songwriter Findlay, who released more new music this past February, and has been making indie pop that ropes in plenty of other influences for more than a decade now.
That being said, she’s always experimenting with her sound, as her collabs with Blossoms, Miles Kane, Bill Ryder-Jones, Joris Delacroix have shown, and this latest iteration seems to have her tapping into everything from almost 50s and 60s female soul singers to slow electronic and more.
We love the smooth sexiness and sheer ambition of her latest single, ‘Stay Kinky’ and ‘Waste My Time’ always feels like a late-night chiller fit for music video set in a dingey bar, however, we still have a soft spot for her debut, ‘Your Sister’, with the riff that’s almost reminiscent of ‘Blockbuster’ by Sweet.
Last but not least, it’s the second time we’re featuring a returning artist and it comes in the form of young Alex Spencer, whose journey from busking around the streets of Greater Manchester to sold-out headlines shows and featuring on the likes EA Sports FC 25 (yes, FIFA) is a truly remarkable one.
The charming and still fresh-faced local lad from Droylsden is nothing short of proof that hard work and determination can pay off, and those ‘Bucket List’ dreams really are within reach. Obvious talent aside, this teenager has grafted his arse off and we couldn’t be more proudof how far he’s come already.
He last featured in this round-up back in April 2024 but even in the time between then, he’s released plenty and developed even further as musician, so much so that we’re not going to suggest which songs to try; instead, you can watch our most recent interview with him and relive his last year or so with us.
I’m Alex Spencer and This is my journey so far!
8 years of my music journey summed up in 1 minute 55😅 Thankyou to everyone who’s followed my journey so far, to anyone new or to anyone who doesn’t know my story, I made this video to show where it all started and how I got here❤️ pic.twitter.com/Hi3W7MHMxX
So, the next time you hear someone foolishly complaining that the Greater Manchester music scene ‘isn’t what it once was’, you can go right ahead of show them these bands and artists.
In fact, you could just point them in the direction of this very page and Audio North, in general, as we do this round-up every month and plenty more every week, meaning you’re headphones never dry up.
For instance, you can check out which Manchester bands and artists we were listening to back in April, both new, current and old, down below. We’ll see you again very soon.
Bruce Springsteen’s unforgettable final night at Co-op Live in Manchester – just wow…
Danny Jones
It’s rare you get to see legends in real life, especially this up close and personal, but there’s still just one key word that keeps coming to mind when we think of seeing Bruce Springsteen in Manchester at the Co-op Live last night: surreal.
We still can’t quite believe that he was here in Manchester, in the flesh, for three separate nights, but we do intend to replay it in our heads over and over again until it fully sinks in.
Springsteen, ‘The Boss’, Brucey, whatever you want to call him, there really is something to be said for someone who’s been going this long and still exerts so much energy at 75.
That goes for his desperately loyal and dedicated crowds, too. The legions that marched down ‘Thunder Road’ and back down the CityLink walking route and the Ashton canal in supreme spirits after all was said and done gave as good as they got.
We can only assume Springsteen was as incredible on the first night at Co-op Live as he was on the last. (Credit: Audio North)
From singing back every chorus to the chants of “Bruuuuuuuce!” between every single song, it was more apparent than ever that being a Springsteen fan is quite literally a way of life for these people; they know every line, every call and response, every micro-dance move and regular on-stage ritual.
Each show is roughly three hours long, by the way – he does have an absolute treasure trove of discography to work through, in fairness.
Put simply, there’s no messing about, just non-stop rock and roll of the highest order. Well, there are some brief pauses, but for good reason…
As a passionate political and philanthropic person throughout a career which spans more than six decades, he took the time to talk about America and the turbulent times they are once again facing.
He spoke about the craven billionaire class, poverty, uniting through art and, just as he did on night one in Manchester, Springsteen railed against a particular tyrant who happens to have found himself in the seat of power yet again back over in the States. He made sure to do this every single night.
‘Born in the U.S.A.’ (which he did decide to play, along with a plethora of the other biggest hits) now feels more like a protest song than ever. The war may no longer be in Vietnam, but there is one raging back home, and he’s even more wary of it than before.
He thanked those in the pit and the stands for indulging him, as well as the “wonderful space” of the Co-op and its “beautiful sound” for hosting him, but we have a feeling the New Jersey poet could have said just about anything and he’d still have 23,500+ in the palm of his hands.
All that being said, it wasn’t like this was a pseudo-rally or anything like that, nor was anything of this being foisted upon the audience, but there was a real sense of a congregation gathering in the church of Bruce to take in his sermon.
His followers have often been referred to in this way, and despite only previously considering ourselves a very casual Springsteen enthusiast, having now been to a sell-out arena gig with one of the biggest Boss fans we know, we can understand why millions of people around the world idolise this absolute icon.
It goes without saying that a huge amount of applause must go to The E Street Band themselves, who are just as much a part of what makes Springsteen sets so special as he is.
From the ever-charismatic Steven Van Zandt (still hard not to see him as ‘Sil’ from The Sopranos) to Jake Clemons on sax – who has been part of the group since 2012 and shared a touching embrace with Bruce as tributes to his predecessor and uncle, Clarence, played behind them – these lot are a family.
Our only minor gripe is that we sorely missed hearing ‘Atlantic City’, but what the concert did confirm is that much like the effect the recent Bob Dylan biopic had on us, we’re now more committed than ever to working through the Springsteen back catalogue from start to finish and seeing how obsessed we get.
To end on one final thought and echo the words of the man himself: “peace, love and freedom.”
Danny Jones -
10th April 2024 
