If you’re a fan of tequila – or you’re much more cultured than us and have a penchant for its equally delicious cousin, mezcal – then you’ll be happy to hear that a festival celebrating both is coming to Manchester.
You had us at alcohol.
Following their sold-out event earlier this year, Copita Mezcal and Tequila Festival is coming to Manchester city centre in September, where locals will be welcomed to the city for a full day of tasting, street food to pair with it, masterclasses and much more.
It’ll be the first time a festival dedicated to these two particular spirits has come to 0161 and looking at the full overview, we’re already licking our lips.
The new Mexican-inspired food and drink festival only debuted in Glasgow back in Spring 2023 but it unsurprisingly went down an absolute storm – after all, what’s not to like a big festival full of booze?
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Set to take over the gorgeous Manchester Cathedral and turn the room into one big tasting floor, there’s going to be over 100 varieties of premium tequilas and smoky mezcals from some of Mexico’s most renowned producers on offer.
These will include prestigious brands like El Jimador, Del Maguey and Olmeca Altos; Vivir, Ojo De Dios, Bandero and El Tequileno with many more revealed in the run-up to the event.
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As mentioned, there’ll also be guided tastings and masterclasses led by industry experts and festival-goers will gain exclusive insights into the craftsmanship behind these distinctive tipples, along with the opportunity to sample responsibly from dozens of stands from their very own limited edition ‘copita’, the traditional clay cups used to drink agave-based spirits.
Better yet, there’s no token system in place: this is all included in your ticket price, meaning you can truly make the most of everything on offer. We’ll cheers to that.
If that marg doesn’t get your mouth watering, nothing will. (Credit: Supplied/Copita Festival)
Colin Campbell, one of Copita’s co-founders said: “We’re really excited to be bringing Copita to Manchester. It’s gone down brilliantly in Glasgow the last two years so we felt now was the right time to take it on the road and we couldn’t think of a better place than Manchester to head to next!
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“It’s a really easy-going event with a great atmosphere, lots of local street food, shopping and music, so whether you’re an aficionado or a casual sipper we’re confident you’ll have a great time.”
Once again, there’ll also be some fine Manc street food on offer – most notably Taco Or Don’t, the immensely popular pop-up shack which finished third in the British Streetfood Awards last year.
There’s plenty more on show that we could tell you about but it’s probably best to leave a little bit behind the curtain.
The second-ever Coptita Mezcal and Tequila Festival rocks up to Manchester on Saturday, 14 September and tickets are only £35 per session.
However, you can still get your hands on early bird prices that are good for 15% off (£29.75 total), which are available until Sunday, 7 July when you use the code EARLYBIRD15.
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Sessions last three and a half hours and will take place from 12:30-4pm and 5:15-8:45pm, so it can be a daytime thing or an evening affair depending on how early you want to start drinking.
‘The average cost of a pint’ in the UK by region, according to the latest data
Danny Jones
Does it feel like pints keep getting more and more expensive almost every week at this point? Yes. Yes, it does, and while you can’t expect a city as big as Manchester to be one of the cheapest places to get one in the UK, we do often wonder how it compares to other parts of the country.
Well, as it happens, someone has recently crunched the numbers for us across the nation, breaking down which regions pay the most and the least for their pints.
The data has been examined by business management consultancy firm, CGA Strategy, using artificial intelligence and information from the latest Retail Price Index figures to find out what the ‘average cost of a pint’ is down south, up North and everywhere in between.
While the latest statistics provided by the group aren’t granular enough to educate us on Greater Manchester’s pint game exactly, we can show you how our particular geographic region is looking on the leaderboard at the moment.
That’s right, we Mancunians and the rest of the North West are technically joint mid-table when it comes to the lowest average cost of a pint, sharing the places from 3rd to 8th – according to CGA, anyway.
Powered by consumer intelligence company, NIQ (NielsenIQ) – who also use AI and the latest technology to deliver their insights – we can accept it might seem like it’s been a while since you’ve paid that little for a pint, especially in the city centre, but these are the stats they have published.
Don’t shoot the messenger, as they say; unless, of course, they’re trying to rob you blind for a bev. Fortunately, we’ve turned bargain hunting at Manchester bars into a sport at this point.
We might not boast the lowest ‘average’ pint cost in the UK, but we still have some bloody good places to keep drinking affordable.
London tops the charts (pretends to be shocked)
While some of you may have scratched your eyes at the supposed average pint prices here in the North West, it won’t surprise any of you to see that London leads the way when it came to the most expensive pint when it came to average cost in the UK.
To be honest, £5.44 doesn’t just sound cheap but virtually unheard of these days.
CGA has it that the average cost of a beer in the British capital is actually down 15p from its price last September, but as we all know, paying upwards of £7 for a pint down that end of the country is pretty much par for the course the closer you get to London.
Yet more reason you can be glad you live around here, eh? And in case you thought you were leaving this article with very little, think again…
Tesco are introducing ‘VAR-style’ self-checkouts in the UK
Danny Jones
Many people think VAR has already gone too far and want it gone from football full stop, and we’re here to tell you that you’re a fool; your hopes are in vain, and the technology is only going to become more common as time goes on. Sorry.
So much so, in fact, that Tesco look are bringing in their own virtual referee into self-checkout systems in shops. You could say the ‘game’s gone…’
Of course, we’re being a bit flippant here, but if you have seen ‘VAR’ and ‘Tesco‘, you’re not seeing things: this is genuinely a thing that is being rolled out here in the UK, with video footage of the supermarket chain’s next self-checkout technology going viral online.
Thought you’d got away with sneaking an extra little something in the bag without paying? Think again.
— UB1UB2 West London (Southall) (@UB1UB2) May 28, 2025
We’ll admit, this was the first time we’d come across the technology, but as it turns out, the updated self-checkout service has been in place for a while.
Similar VAR checkouts have already been installed at other retailers, Sainsbury’s and ASDA, although some reports claim that while stores capture footage of shoppers to check if they’ve scanned all of their items, it is thought that not all of these self-service tills show a playback when an error is detected.
Although this particular speculation has sparked some uproar and debate online, many have quite rightly pointed out that CCTV records your movement in any given shop.
Regardless, it’s fair to say that aside from the obvious memes and people poking fun at the new system, many on social media have shared some pretty strong opinions on the matter.
Not that it matters much – it’s likely this will soon become increasingly the norm, with the likes of Sainsbury’s having already introduced barriers which require customers to scan their receipt in order to leave at branches such as the site on Regent Road Retail Park over in Salford.
As yet, it’s unclear how many of these new self-service tills are in operation and whether they are limited to larger supermarket locations of their Express convenience stores, but don’t be surprised if you come across one.
Put simply, if a barcode isn’t registered before being put on the scale and/or set aside to be packed away, the Tesco till will read: “The last item wasn’t scanned properly. Remove from bagging area and try again.”
Addressing these new VAR-style checkouts in an official statement, a company spokesperson said: “We are always looking at technology to make life easier for our customers.
“We have recently installed a new system at some stores which helps customers using self-service checkouts identify if an item has not been scanned properly, making the checkout process quicker and easier.”
What do you make of the new Tesco and their new VAR self-checkout technology?
Danny Jones -
1st July 2024 
