Award-winning illuminations event Lightopia is returning to Heaton Park in Manchester with new “festive fantasy” installations and light shows.
Ahead of the grand opening of the popular outdoor Christmas lights event – which is returning for the third year running – next Friday, Lightopia has also announced a new charity initiative called Light of Love that supports a range of local organisations around Greater Manchester, and for 2021, will officially partner with Hits Radio’s Cash for Kids ‘Mission Christmas’.
Cash For Kids ‘Mission Christmas’ is known for bringing the magic of Christmas to children who may otherwise wake up without a visit from Santa.
Last year, ‘Mission Christmas’ was able to help 30,697 children across the region, while Cash for Kids itself aims to support the one in three children that are living in poverty across Greater Manchester.
Visitors to Lightopia this year will be able to add on an optional donation as they purchase tickets for the Manchester outdoor Christmas lights event.
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Lightopia is returning to Heaton Park in Manchester with new “festive fantasy” installations / Credit: Lightopia
Commenting on the exciting partnership, Michelle Williamnson – Regional Manager at Cash For Kids – said: “We are thrilled that Lightopia Manchester is supporting Mission Christmas this year, as with more families hitting unexpected hardship over the past year, Christmas is a luxury that many simply can’t afford [and] some households are having to make difficult decisions between food, heating, and gifts.
“For some children and young people, Christmas can be just like any other day – but we want to make sure it’s different and as special as possible this year.
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“Every child deserves a gift, and with your help they can wake up to a visit from Santa on Christmas morning.”
Lightopia is promising a ‘state-of-the-art’ lakeside water show for 2021 / Credit: Lightopia
Ian Xiang – Creative Director of Lightopia – adds: “We are excited to bring a new element to Lightopia Manchester this winter, Light of Love aims to support local charities doing vital work in the Greater Manchester communities.
“The work of these organisations has never been so important [and] this year, we are helping to raise funds for Cash for Kids Mission Christmas, helping to make Christmas special for every child, with a gift this Christmas.”
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The Light of Love initiative will also be supporting OUR PASS and SEND this year.
OUR PASS is a membership scheme for young people who live in Greater Manchester, for both school leavers and care leavers, while SEND is the system that supports children and young people with additional needs throughout their education.
Visitors to Lightopia this year will be able to add on an optional donation as they purchase tickets / Credit: Lightopia
The Light of Love initiative, and additional outdoor light installations aren’t all that’s new at Lightopia in Manchester this year, as there’s also the new illuminated ‘Dining Domes’.
Nestled in the park’s woodland and surrounded by lanterns, the ten domes make for a unique and atmospheric dining experience for families, friends and couples, while The Stables Courtyard Bar and Dining will offer a more casual dining experience, with food, music and festive spirit under a heated canopy.
Lightopia will be open to the public Thursdays – Sundays from the 25 November until 11 December, and then will be open every day until Monday 3 January 2022 except for Christmas day, with opening times between 5pm to 10pm, and last entry is 8.30pm daily.
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Lightopia’s illuminated ‘Dining Domes’ make for a unique and atmospheric dining experience / Credit: Lightopia
Advance tickets are priced at £20 for adults (or £22 on the day), £13 for children (or £15 on the day), £60 for families of two adults and two children (£68 on the day), and children under three can go free.
Essential carers of disabled visitors can attend for free, the disabled visitor pays the normal admission fee.
Luxury Manchester gym Blok confirms permanent closure after weeks of uncertainty
Daisy Jackson
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure, weeks after the doors to the premium fitness facility mysteriously closed.
Around a fortnight ago, members began to arrive to their classes to find the gym on Ducie Street locked up and a forfeiture notice on the door – but at the time, Blok said that it was fighting to reopen.
Sadly, in an email sent to members today, its founder has confirmed that the studio is now permanently closed.
Blok – which has several very successful sites down in London – said that its relationship with its landlord has ‘broken down to a point where trust has been lost’.
The gym wrote that it’s been left with ‘no workable way forward’.
They said: “BLOK Manchester was a space built by our loyal and dedicated community. Whether you joined us for one class or one hundred, we are deeply grateful. You helped create something genuinely special in an incredible city.”
In the immediate future, they said they’ll be supporting the team of fantastic trainers who worked here, as well as looking after members.
Members will be contacted within a few hours with options and refunds owed.
Blok Manchester has announced its permanent closure. Credit: The Manc Group
CEO and founder Ed Stanbury said: “While this marks the end of a chapter, we don’t see it as the end of our story in Manchester. We’re already speaking with developers about potential future sites and remain committed to returning to the city when the time is right.
“Thank you for being part of our story so far. Let’s shape the future of wellness. The mission continues.”
Commenting on Blok’s Instagram post – its first in almost a fortnight – people have been sharing their sadness at the closure of its Manchester site.
One person wrote: “beautiful space, beautiful staff and beautiful community.”
Another said: “Sending love to all the instructors !! :(((( gutted”
Someone else commented: “THE BEST CLASSES. I’m gutted.”
‘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…
Emily Sergeant -
17th November 2021 
