The full lineup for the Manchester Food and Drink Festival (MFDF) has been revealed – and it sounds amazing.
Taking place down at the festival hub in Cathedral Gardens, MFDF will run from 16 – 27 September. As ever, the hub will be free to enter with some special events and feasts requiring tickets to be purchased on top.
Highlights of this year’s programme include a mammoth chippy tea feast, an Oktoberfest takeover from Albert’s Schloss, a wine and fizz festival at Halle St Peters, and an ultimate night of pub grub feasting from The Bull and Bear’s Tom Kerridge (the only UK chef to ever win two Michelin stars at a pub, thank you very much).
Elsewhere, an artisan food market will feature some of Manchester’s finest local producers, hosting two separate line-ups across each weekend.
And of course, there will also be an amazing range of street food traders popping up at intervals throughout the duration of the festival.
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Other happenings at the festival include a four-day MFDF street food trailer takeover with chefs from Evuna and Tast Catala; a fundraising kitchen from anti-food poverty enterprise Eat Well MCR; and a gaggle of street food chalets hosted by sponsors Just Eat and filled with their top restaurant partners.
There’ll also be live entertainment from local bands like Mr. Wilson’s Second Liners and The Lottery Winners over on the City Life stage.
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One of the street food traders confirmed for this year’s Manchester Food and Drink festival lineup / Image: The Hanoi 75
MFDF also has its own street food kitchen trailer on-site, which will be taken over by some of the city’s best-loved restaurants and chefs over a four-day period: including Evuna, Jackie Kearney and Tast Catala.
Headline sponsor Just Eat will install restaurant partners La Bandera, Vertigo, JJ’s Vish and Chips and Peck n Yard inside street food chalets.
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And Meatless Farm will also be in attendance throughout the festival, serving up a full burger menu alongside samples of their excellent vegan cooking products.
An artisan food market will also feature some of the region’s best independent food and drink producers, makers and businesses, bringing down guests like Ancoats’ community bakery Companio, Chorlton Cheesemongers and HM Pasties to name just a few.
Bars, meanwhile, will include a Manchester Beer Bar celebrating locally-brewed ales, beer and cider, a gin and tonic bar from Franklin and Sons, and a Truly Hard Seltzer bar from alcoholic sparkling water brand Truly.
Manchester’s biggest chippy tea feast is coming to MFDF this September – with boozy ice cream for dessert.
Manchester’s biggest chippy tea feast
Manchester’s best-loved restaurants, chefs, chip shops and food traders will be coming together on 22nd September in what’s being dubbed “Manchester’s biggest chippy tea”.
One of Manchester’s best traditional chippies, Anchors of Didsbury, will join Hip Hop Chip Shop, JJ Vish and Chips, acclaimed Ancoats fish restaurant Street Urchin and Stockport’s Lord of the Pies for the event in serving their own take on this classic Northern staple.
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For dessert, there’ll be boozy ice cream courtesy of ‘A Few Scoops’ who will be bringing their special pink Tuk Tuk ‘Jolene’ to the Hub serving up the perfect chippy tea boozy finale.
As this is expected to be very busy, a limited number of tables are available for pre-booking here.
The ultimate pub grub feast, with a live music sound track
Tom Kerridge’s The Bull and Bear is hosting a one night pub grub style takeover at the festival hub, creating their own take on street food with a special three-course meal.
Designed especially for the festival, think potted Loch Duart salmon with apple jelly and cucumber chutney; followed by braised beef and blue cheese pie with English mustard mash and Seven Brothers ale gravy; finished off with a pudding of banana custard, dates, pistachio, and honeycomb.
A live music soundtrack will provide the perfect accompanying ‘pub at the hub’ atmosphere, and Manchester beer bar will be on hand with a selection of local craft beer to bring that proper pub variety.
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Tickets cost £55 per person and can be booked here.
A Schlosstoberfest takeover feast in July, with brats, pretzels and lederhosen
Albert’s Schloss will be taking over the MFDF street kitchen on the evening of Thursday 23 July with Bavarian street food and lively entertainment from their brilliant house dancers and musicians.
Expect brats, pretzels and lederhosen a-plenty, plus German other street food favorites like mayonnaise loaded fries.
Free to enter, walk-ins welcome.
The CityLife stage is a regular fixture at MFDF and always hosts great local artists
What’s happening at the CityLife music stage?
Featuring a curated line-up of Manchester’s best local bands and musicians, The CityLife stage always brings a great selection of local talent to MFDF. This year looks set to be no different.
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The festival will kick off with live music from Mr. Wilson’s Second Liners on Thursday 16.
Friday 17 will see local indie-pop band The Lottery Winners take to the stage. Hailing from Leigh, they will be performing an acoustic preview ahead of their first Manchester Live gig at the Ritz on 25 September.
Sunday 19 and Sunday 26 September will bring the Flat Cap Brass, then on Sunday 19,Fine Lines will play exquisite roots infused Americana with echoes of Dylan and The Band.
What about the app?
For the very first time the entire programme of what’s happening will be available via a brand new MFDF App – bringing the Festival to your fingertips like never before.
App users will be able to browse the full festival programme, reserve a table at the Festival Hub and vote in the MFDF awards too. The app can be downloaded by IOS users here or at this link for Android users.
As part of this year’s Manchester Food and Drink festival, there is also a number of fringe events taking place around the city. To find out more and for full details, head to their website here.
The 24th Manchester Food and Drink Festival will take place this year from 16 – 27 September, 2021.
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How and where to recycle or donate your Christmas tree in Manchester | 2026
Emily Sergeant
The new year is here, and the ’12 days of Christmas’ are up… which means it’s time for a fresh start.
Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve both feel like things of the past now, and for most of us, this is our first proper week back at work too, which means (if you haven’t already) it’s time to tackle the task of taking down and putting away all the festive decorations – even if it is one of the dullest times of the year and it signals that the magic of Christmas is over.
For those of us that opt for a real Christmas tree though, the end of the year always brings one question – now what do we do with it?
Manchester City Council has aimed to answer that very question by providing residents with a handful of different ways to recycle their Christmas trees to make sure they’re put to good use and don’t go to waste or get dumped.
Here’s the different options.
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Recycle it in your food and garden waste bin
You can recycle your Christmas tree by cutting it up and placing it in your food and garden waste bin, but you’ll need to make sure you take the following steps before doing so.
Remove all decorations and fairy lights
Take off the base or wooden block if your tree has one
Make sure the trunk is not thicker than your wrist. Wood thicker than your wrist is too big and can’t be put in the garden and food bin. Large trunks and wooden bases can be taken to a recycling centre.
Donate it to charity
Did you know you can donate your Christmas trees to charity? That’s right – for residents living in Manchester, all you’ll need to do is register your tree with national charity JustHelping, along with a donation towards the collection, and you can help a local hospice or charitable cause in the city-region.
The money raised will go to good causes in the area, including Moya Cole Hospice (previously St Anne’s Hospice), Francis House, and We Love Manchester.
You can find more information and register your tree here.
It’s time to take down and recycle our Christmas trees for another year / Credit: Myriam Olmz | Tanbir Mahmud (via Unsplash)
Take it to a local drop-off point
You can drop your real tree throughout January at:
Angel Meadow Park (entrance Old Mount Street) – M4 4HA
Wythenshawe Park and Gardens Athletics Track – M23 0PH
Heaton Park (Middleton Road entrance) – M8 4NB
Boggart Hole Clough (near the Visitor Centre) – M9 7DH
Patchett Street, off Hyde Road in Ardwick – M12 4RY
Bring it to your local recycling centres
And finally, wherever you live in Manchester, you can take your real Christmas tree – and even your artificial tree that is beyond reuse – to your local recycling centre for free of charge, but it’s worth noting that if you’re planning on using a van, pick-up truck, or a twin-axle trailer to dispose of your tree, then you’ll probably need to apply for a permit.
You can find information about your nearest recycling centre here.
Are you elsewhere in Greater Manchester? Recycle for Greater Manchester (R4GM) has teamed up with local councils and charities across the region to provide Greater Manchester residents in all 10 boroughs with several different options for either recycling or donate their old Christmas trees.
Featured Image – Jelleke Vanooteghem (via Unsplash)
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NHS releases list of first conditions set to be eligible for new ‘online hospital’
Emily Sergeant
The first conditions that are set to be eligible for video appointments via the new NHS online hospital have been revealed.
In case you hadn’t heard, back in September of last year, the Government has announced that the NHS would be setting up an ‘online hospital’ known simply as NHS Online – which will not have a physical site and instead digitally connect patients to expert clinicians anywhere across the country.
Ultimately, this means patients can be seen faster than normal, as teams triage them quickly through the NHS App and let them book in scans at times that suit them at centres closer to their home.
NHS Online – which will begin to see its first patients in 2027 – is expected to deliver the equivalent of up to 8.5 million virtual appointments and assessments in its first three years, according to the NHS, which is four times more than an average NHS trust.
And now, the NHS has selected nine ‘common’ conditions which will be the first to be treated by the NHS Online service.
📲 Introducing NHS Online 📲
A new digital hospital will transform healthcare.
From 2027, you'll be able to get specialist care:
✅ straight to your home via the NHS App ✅ faster than a traditional hospital appointment ✅ wherever you live in England
Women’s health issues, including severe menopause symptoms and menstrual problems that can be a sign of endometriosis or fibroids, will be among the conditions available for online referrals, as will prostate problems like prostate enlargement and a raised prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, along with eye conditions including cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
NHS Online will also provide support for other painful and distressing conditions, such as iron deficiency anaemia and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
So, how will NHS Online work then? Well, when a patient has an appointment with their GP, they will have the option of being referred to the online hospital for their specialist care instead, and then from there, they’ll be able to book directly through the NHS App.
Once referred to the online hospital, patients will have the ability to see specialists from around the country without leaving their home or having to wait longer for a face-to-face appointment.
The NHS has released a list of the first conditions set to be eligible for the new ‘online hospital’ / Credit: Nordwood Themes (via Unsplash) | rawpixel
If they need a scan, test, or procedure, then they’ll be able to book this in at a time that suits them at Community Diagnostic Centres closer to home.
Patients will also be able to track their prescriptions and get advice on managing their condition at home too.
“We’ve selected nine common conditions which the NHS Online service will initially provide support for when it launches next year, including some women’s health issues as well as prostate problems,” commented Professor Stella Vig, who is the National Clinical Director for Elective Care at NHS England.
“We know that these conditions can be painful and difficult to cope with so providing faster, more convenient access to diagnosis and treatments will have a real and positive impact on people’s lives.”
Georgina Pellant -
8th July 2021 
