News

The big Manchester guide to Bonfire Night – everything you need to know

'Baby you're a firework!'

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia - 29th October 2024

Remember, remember the fifth of November, when spots around Manchester will be lighting up the night sky for Bonfire Night.

Dazzling fireworks displays, roaring bonfires, hot chocolates and loads more will be on offer in the coming week as the nation turns fully autumnal.

Although the Manchester City Council-run Bonfire Night celebrations have been called off once again, there are plenty of places you can still celebrate.  

Listed below are some of the top bonfires happening in and around Greater Manchester in 2024 including some viewing spots where you can immerse yourself in a world of free fireworks atop the Manchester skyline.

Although we can’t list every single event occurring over the next week, here is a summary of upcoming fireworks displays across the 10 boroughs.

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Bonfire Night 2024 – The Guide 

Dark Distillery at The Cat and Fiddle

The UK’s highest altitude distillery is hosting a night of luxury drinks and spooky stories in their cosy establishment this Bonfire Night.

Joined by David Atkinson from Dark Chester Ghost Tours, there will be eerie tales told as you sip on a cocktail that is smoked right in front of you by the bartenders.

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How can you possibly go wrong, especially when there is a charcuterie board on hand to soak up your liquid courage and take you to food heaven?

The landscape even overlooks Buxton and Macclesfield meaning guests have a chance to gaze at the fireworks while tucking into the finer things in life.  

Guests wanting to take their Bonfire Night to the next level with this unforgettable experience can purchase tickets HERE.

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  • When: Tuesday 5 November, 6:30-9:30pm
  • Where to find: Buxton Rd, Macclesfield SK1 0AR

Printworks Manchester Bonfire Spectacular

Manchester’s world of entertainment situated right in the city centre is even getting involved with the firework frenzy presenting a jam-packed night of free fun – though these fireworks have a big twist.

They’ll be showing a fireworks display on that huge new digital ceiling, meaning you can enjoy all the wonder of a classic display while staying warm and dry.

Special guest Nigel Clarke, known for his work on CBeebies and various kids channels is treating little ones to a ‘Relaxed hour’ with some campfire stories.

Two firework displays are taking place at 6 and 7pm with two DJ sets from Kai Ryan in between at 6-7:15pm to dance your heart out to.

Tickets aren’t required for this event and a free toffee apple will be handed out to each child that attends.

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  • When: Tuesday 5 November, 5-8pm
  • Where to find: 27 Withy Grove, Manchester, M4 2BS

The Fireworks Extravaganza at Mayfield Park

The Fireworks Extravaganza at Mayfield Park

The skies above Manchester city centre will be sparkling this autumn when a huge Bonfire Night event takes over the city’s newest park.

The huge fireworks display comes from Freight Island and the acclaimed ‘Walk the Plank’ is set to take place over several evenings of Bonfire Night weekend.

There’ll even be free sparklers for kids when the festive event takes place between 1 and 3 November.

You can find out more HERE.

  • When: 1-3 November, various times
  • Where to find: 11 Baring Street, M1 2PY

Bowdon Bonfire 2024 at Bowdon Cricket Hockey and Squash Club

This Altrincham sports venue is spoiling its guests with not one but three fireworks displays and a traditional bonfire.

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There will be stalls, refreshments and a BBQ with a stall selling everybody’s favourite sweet treats. 

Three showings will be held at this site with children and young people advised to attend the 7-8pm displays as the 8:45pm slot will contain louder fireworks.

Tickets are on sale now and can be bought HERE.

  • When: Friday 1 November, 6-10pm
  • Where to find: South Downs Road, Altrincham, WA14 3DT

Fireworks at the Farm – Cockfields Farm Park 

This Ashton farm is hosting a ‘low bang’ night perfectly designed for children and animals with lots of fun activities to get involved with including a bonfire.

There will be everything from a mini disco to an LED robot light show and in typical farm fashion, kids are also invited to the cuddle corner where they can see all the smaller animals up close.

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An array of food will also be readily available from your typical jacket potatoes to pizza, hot dogs and donuts to tuck into as well.

If this has caught your attention, tickets are on sale HERE.

  • When: Saturday, 2 November and Sunday 3 November, 5-8pm
  • Where to find: Lees New Rd, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne OL6 8AR

Cavendish PTA Bonfire Night – Cavendish Community Primary School

Chorlton Fireworks is teaming up with a local primary school to create an incredible light display set to go off with a bang.

Get transported back to your childhood days as this event has its own tuck shop on site for snacks and drinks to enjoy while you marvel over the fireworks.

There’s also festival glitter on-hand meaning guests can soak up the action while shining as bright as the sky in front of them. 

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Anyone interested in attending can find tickets available HERE.

  • When: Friday, 1 November, 5-7pm
  • Where to find: Cavendish Rd, West Didsbury, Manchester M20 1JG

Bonfire Night at Ashton on Mersey Sports Club 

Gates open at 5:30pm for this event with the bonfire lighting at 6:15pm, visitors at this sports club can expect a family-friendly night as thrilling as ever.

A selection of food and drinks will be served at this event including all your typical bonfire feasts to more gourmet options.

Parking at this event may be limited and anyone attending is being urged to walk where possible as no spaces are available on-site. 

Tickets are on sale now HERE.

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  • When: Tuesday, 5 November, 5-9:30pm 
  • Where to find: Banky Lane, Sale, Greater Manchester M33 5SL

Rochdale Mayfield Firework Display

This local Greater Manchester town’s amateur rugby league football club is presenting its attendees with a bonfire night they’ll never forget as it won’t have a bonfire!

Their fantastic entertainment and fireworks will still be there as well as some tasty delights in the form of Rochdale street food and restaurant favourite, Bombay Brew. 

If you intend on popping down for a funfilled night, guests are being encouraged to respect neighbours and their driveways.

Tickets are available as you arrive with both cash and card accepted at the gates.

  • When: Friday, 1 November, 6:30pm – late
  • Where to find: Keswick Street, Castleton, OL113AG

Littleborough Cricket Club Bonfire & Firework Display

Not too far from Rochdale, Littleborough Cricket Club are entertaining locals with a night of fireworks, food and fun.

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There will be a fun fair, food stalls and two outdoor bars to cut down on those pesky queues that we Mancs always get caught up in.

What’s also special about this display is that little guests who are two and under even get into the venue for free here!

  • When: Saturday, 2 November, 4pm onwards
  • Where to find: Denhurst Rd, Littleborough OL15 9LD

Shaw Cricket Club Bonfire Night and Firework Extravaganza 2024

This annual event promises to be one to remember especially with the name ‘Extravaganza’ in its title.

Gates open at 4pm with rides and attractions starting at this time too in preparation for the bonfire and show later on in the evening.

Anyone planning on paying a visit is guided to take public transport such as the tram or walk to avoid congestion in the area.

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Tickets can be found here.

  • When: Saturday, 2 November, 4pm – late
  • Where to find: Mark Lane, Shaw, OL2 8QG

Bonfire Night 2024 at The Church Inn

This family-friendly event boasts an epic fireworks show plus a live DJ, with an even more impressive bonfire over in Chadderton.

Food and beer will be flowing throughout the venue to keep you nice and toasty while the fireworks warm your heart and soul.

What’s even better about this display is that everyone under the age of 12 gets all of this for free!

  • When: Saturday, 2 November, 6-11pm
  • Where to find: Chadderton Fold, Chadderton, Oldham OL1 2RR

Werneth Low

For those who wish they had a clone, fear not, this Manchester skyline spot might just give you free access to multiple firework displays all at once.

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With views across 0161, Liverpool and beyond, curious travellers are sure to see some incredible sights, especially across the firework-packed week and weekend.

There’s a pub not too far from this spot so you can really soak up the action with your phone recording the view in one hand and a pint fixed in the other.

  • When: All throughout the upcoming weekend
  • Where to find: Hyde SK14 3AA

Read more:

We’ve also got some helpful tips for you to look after your furry friends on the big night.

How to look after your cats and dogs this Bonfire Night
Some helpful tips to keep our beloved Manchester pets as calm as possible this Bonfire Night.

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — Wikimedia Commons

News

Peaky Blinders confirm title and release date of upcoming film

Danny Jones Danny Jones Peaky Blinder film title and release date reveal

After what feels like an age since it was first announced, Peaky Blinders and Netflix have finally confirmed the title and release date of the upcoming feature-length film.

It was revealed that the global streaming giant secured exclusive rights to the movie last year, and it has now been revealed that it will also be released in selected theatres before it hits the platform.

With production on the long-talked-about project getting underway in September 2024, we’ve heard little else from creator Steven Knight, who has also been booked to deliver the Oasis reunion documentary chronicling their Live ’25 world tour.

However, we now know not only the official title of the film, Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, and that it will be dropping early next year. They’ve even shared the first poster.

Clearly referring to the series’ most famous lead character, Thomas Shelby – played by now fully-fledged Hollywood A-lister Cillian Murphy since 2013 – the teaser shows him sat astride a horse, not to mention covered in a fair amount of dirt and/or blood.

Alongside the suit and the trademark newsboy cap with blades inserted in the brim (the calling card of both the fictional and the real ‘Peaky Blinders’), it’s quite a classic look of Tommy’s.

Scheduled to release in limited cinemas on 6 March before arriving on Netflix on 20/3/2026, this will not only be the first film in the wider franchise but the first to air separately from the BBC.

While its parent network is still involved as collaborators on the flick, this is the first instalment in the IP to be distributed directly by Netflix after they bought the rights to release the show in the US.

Meanwhile, back here at home, the BBC is gearing up to oversee the next generation of the show and introduce a whole new generation of Peaky Blinders…

peaky blinders movie name and release date
Another look at a seemingly older Tommy Shelby (Credit: Publicity picture via Netflix)

As for The Immortal Man, both new and returning members of the cast include:

  • Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer, 28 Days Later)
  • Rebecca Ferguson (Dune, Silo)
  • Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight)
  • Sophie Rundle (After the Flood, Gentleman Jack)
  • Ned Dennehy (Culprits, The Peripheral)
  • Packy Lee (Blue Lights)
  • Ian Peck (His Dark Materials, Robin Hood)
  • Jay Lycurgo (Steve, Half Bad: The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself)
  • Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, The Banshees of Inisherin)
  • Stephen Graham (Adolescence, A Thousand Blows)

Speaking in a full press release, Murphy said: “It seems like Tommy Shelby wasn’t finished with me. It is very gratifying to be re-collaborating with Steven Knight and Tom Harper on the film version of Peaky Blinders. This is one for the fans.”

Returning four years after the end of the mainline series, but catching up with Tommy at the outset of WWII in terms of the actual timelines, Netflix say that the Shelby patriarch “is driven back from a self-imposed exile to face his most destructive reckoning yet.”

Safe to say we cannot wait to be back in the world.

In the meantime, you can find out more about the next season(s) of Peaky Blinders coming to the BBC very soon down below.

Adored BBC show Peaky Blinders set for return to British for a ‘new generation’

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For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Taylor Rooke (via Wikimedia Commons)/Publicity picture (via BBC/IMDb)

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Ed Sheeran at Co-op Live, Manchester – tickets, times, setlist and more for ‘intimate’ UK tour

Thomas Melia Thomas Melia

The red-headed, guitar-strumming, lyrical genius, also known as Ed Sheeran, is back, and he’s heading to Co-op Live for one night only as part of his current UK tour.

‘Bad Habits’, ‘Shape of You’, ‘Thinking Out Loud’, Sheeran has built quite an impressive music catalogue over the years and amassed a whopping 60 billion streams while doing so.

The UK music heavyweight scored his ninth number one album with Play, all while adding two more top ten hits to his discography with ‘Azizam’ and ‘Sapphire’, driving his overall top ten singles total to 43 – that’s ‘Perfect’.

Last week, Sheeran dropped his latest musical addition, Play (Deluxe), which features 14 brand new tracks, and lucky fans who have tickets to these upcoming shows will be eager to see which ones he adds to his setlist.

Ed Sheeran at Co-op Live, Manchester – all the key info you need to know

Ed Sheeran is performing a run of intimate shows in the UK including Co-op Live in Manchester / Credit: Press Shots (via Petros Studio)
Ed Sheeran is performing a run of intimate shows in the UK including Co-op Live in Manchester / Credit: Press Shots (via Petros Studio)
Ed Sheeran is performing a run of ‘intimate’ shows in the UK (Credit: Press Shots via Petros Studio)

Now he’s bringing his huge hits to Manchester’s biggest indoor entertainment venue, Co-op Live, just across from the ‘Castle on the Hill’, Etihad Stadium, which Sheeran has performed at on eight occasions.

Ed Sheeran UK tour dates

  • Fri 5 December – Coventry, UK – Coventry CBS
  • Sun 7 December – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
  • Tue 9 December – Dublin, IE – 3Arena

Ed Sheeran tickets for Co-op Live gig

If you’re patiently trying not to get your hopes up, thinking about tickets for Sheeran’s latest gig while simultaneously saying ‘I Don’t Care’, think again.

All you ‘Beautiful People’ after tickets to go see Ed Sheeran when he plays out at Co-op Live on 7 December, you’re in luck as there’s a handful waiting to get snapped up HERE.

Ed Sheeran setlist

Prepare yourself, but with 43 top ten hits next to his name, it’s no surprise Sheeran’s setlist is quite a lengthy one; here’s what he performed at his Paris show earlier this month:

  • Give Me Love
  • Castle on the Hill
  • Shivers
  • Sapphire
  • The A Team
  • Don’t
  • Boat / Life Goes On
  • Galway Girl
  • Nancy Mulligan
  • Old Phone
  • Celestial
  • One / Photograph
  • Thinking Out Loud
  • Eastside / 2002 / Cold Water / Little Things / Love Yourself
  • I See Fire
  • River / Peru / Beautiful People / I Don’t Care
  • Camera
  • Slowly
  • Perfect
  • Symmetry
  • Bloodstream
  • You Need Me, I Don’t Need You
  • Shape of You
  • Azizam
  • Bad Habits
  • Afterglow
  • Merry Christmas

What are the stage times for Ed Sheeran in Manchester?

Ed Sheeran is bringing this short string of tour dates to Coventry, Ireland and Manchester / Credit: Mark Surridge and Petros Studio (via Press Shots)
Ed Sheeran is bringing this short string of tour dates to Coventry, Ireland and Manchester / Credit: Mark Surridge and Petros Studio (via Press Shots)
Credit: Mark Surridge and Petros Studio

Co-op Live has a strict curfew of 11pm, meaning you can ‘2step’ to this chart-topping superstar’s tracks and get tucked up in bed before the early hours of the morning.

Anyone attending can expect the doors to open from 6pm, and not one but two very special guests as the support acts: contemporary Irish band, Biird, and folk duo, Nizlopi, who Ed Sheeran has been a big fan of for a long time now.

You can hear more about his connection with the group down below.

How to get to Co-op Live

Tram

For those of you heading to Co-op Live, you’ll be glad to know it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.

Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne, and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.

Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 1:00am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Bus

You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus, which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.

Getting there by car and parking

If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue, but this must be pre-booked ahead of time, and there are designated drop-off areas.

The postcode is M11 3DU, and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.

Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day, though estimates will obviously vary:

  • Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
  • Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
  • Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.

There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live, but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:

  • Ashton Moss (Ashton line) – 183 spaces and 12 disabled spaces
  • Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
  • Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces

Walk/cycle

Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly, and you could even walk along the canal all the way to the front door if you fancy taking the scenic route.

Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes through the Beryl app, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the bike all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.

For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.

Read more:

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Images — Petros Studio and Mark Surridge (via Press Shots)

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