Art & Culture

Manchester Town Hall is FINALLY taking wedding and events bookings for the first time since 2018

Be one of the first to tie the knot inside this legendary venue.

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant - 1st October 2026

A new era is on the horizon, as Manchester Town Hall has announced that it’ll be finally taking bookings for weddings and events once again.

That’s right… for the first time since it closed its doors to the public for what is the UK’s biggest restoration project to date back in 2018, one of Manchester’s most iconic landmarks is soon set to welcome its first weddings and events in a decade – with bookings for the city’s most romantic address now open once again.

Manchester Town Hall has stood at the centre of civic life in the city since 1877, and for generations, couples have exchanged their vows within its walls.

Now, as it enters the home stretch of its restoration, the Grade I-listed building is gearing up to kickstart weddings and corporate events from January 2028.

Set reopen to the public next year, first up will be a series of celebratory reopening events – which are yet to be announced – before a phased approach will then allow the building and teams to be fully prepared to host commercial events again from 2028.

ADVERTISEMENT
Manchester Town Hall has announced that it’s finally taking wedding and events bookings for the first time since 2018 / Credit: Supplied

From its grand architecture and soaring stained glass windows, to sweeping staircases that offer the perfect ‘just married’ photo opportunities, this one-of-a-kind venue gives couples the opportunity to combine the romance and grandeur of a historic setting with the energy of a city centre celebration.

Inside the restored building, you’ll find The Great Hall, which is a magnificent setting with striking architectural character, as well as The Conference Hall, The Banqueting Hall, and The Reception Room, all of which offer equally characterful spaces that are perfect for private dinners, ceremonies, or corporate events.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Lord Mayor’s Parlour is one of many settings overlooking the newly reopened Albert Square, while various elegant reception areas provide the perfect location for drinks and arrival moments.

“Our Town Hall is a real Victorian masterpiece and we’re looking forward to sharing it with the public once again,” explained Cllr Garry Bridges, who is Leader of Manchester City Council, as bookings finally open up this week.

“It’s a special building which belongs to the people and it’s great that they will be able to celebrate important landmarks in their lives, such as marriage, in its spectacular setting.

ADVERTISEMENT

Read more:

“The Town Hall is full of history. Here’s to many more stories being written within its walls.”

Want to be one of the first people who gets married or hosts an event at Manchester Town Hall once it reopens in 2028? You can enquire about booking here.

Featured Image – Supplied

Art & Culture

Government announces all national museums in UK will remain FREE for everyone to visit

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Dozens of national museums across the UK are set to remain free for everyone to visit, it has been confirmed.

And that includes several in Greater Manchester.

Funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the 14 national museums of the UK are all located in England – including the Imperial War Museum North, and the Science and Industry Museum in our region – and free entry to was first introduced all the way back in 2001, with millions of visitors having benefitted since.

National museums are said to add more than £1 billion a year to the economy, and bring in visitors from all over the world.

In fact, seven of the UK’s 10 most visited museums are national museums, and 7.1 million people visited the Natural History Museum and 6.4 million visited the British Museum in 2025 alone.

The Government has announced that all national museums in the UK will remain free for everyone to visit / Credit: Science Museum Group | Wikimedia Commons

Earlier this year though, the Government committed to working with local leaders and the museum and tourism sectors to explore whether charging overseas visitors could help museums’ finances.

But following this, it’s now believed that charging could deter visitors, and that the impacts and benefits would ‘not be felt equally’ across the sector.

Instead, the free entry will be funded by the £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund – which is providing £760 million for museums – while £600 million of infrastructure funding is supporting national museums and DCMS-sponsored cultural organisations.

The latter funding will be used to address critical maintenance and works to estates, and enable institutions to deliver on their commitments to share collections with visitors from around the world.

Read more:

A further £160 million is coming from The Museum Estates and Development Fund to help museums tackle maintenance backlogs.

On top of that, the Government will work with Arts Council to develop a long-term strategic plan for the future of museums. 

Featured Image – Science Museum Group

Art & Culture

Dirty Dancing at Palace Theatre, Manchester – at least one audience member had the time of her life…

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson Dirty Dancing is at the Palace Theatre in Manchester

For anyone who has watched Dirty Dancing so many times they can practically recite the dialogue, taking on the Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey roles is no small feat – and turning that lakeside romance into a live musical comes with even bigger expectations.

The stage production at the Palace Theatre in Manchester has all the familiar ingredients: the dancing, the music, the forbidden romance and, of course, that lift. But while there are moments when the theatre version captures the exuberance of the original, it doesn’t always manage to recreate its magic.

Charlie Varlet as Baby does a great job of embracing the knock-kneed awkwardness of the teenage star, slowly blossoming into a beautiful dancer who is almost eerily similar to the film’s Jennifer Grey. 

And Joel Benjamin plays a striking Johnny, moving lightly for such an enormously muscular actor. 

But there are moments where their chemistry fizzles out, too much of the script that focuses on their bickerings and misunderstandings to make you buy into their love story. 

At points, it feels almost slapstick, and the result is a restless audience that keeps hooting and hollering at a topless Benjamin when he’s trying to deliver a serious monologue about Johnny’s upbringing. One woman shouts ‘LUCKY YOU’ and cackles as Baby sits in bed with him. It’s not a Magic Mike show, guys. 

Where Dirty Dancing the musical shines is when it really makes the most of its full ensemble, with huge dance numbers that see limbs and skirts flying right across the stage. 

Ellie Ferguson as Penny in Dirty Dancing
Ellie Ferguson as Penny in Dirty Dancing. Credit: Danny Kaan

And it’s hard to take your eyes off Penny (Ellie Fergusson), even when she’s lurking in the crowd, so impressive is her stage presence and the execution of her dance routines. 

Having a lot of the musicians on the stage is a fantastic touch too – you spot people playing saxophones and clarinets and guitars in a lot of the scenes and it adds a real party atmosphere. 

The set design does its best to replicate the iconic moments of the film, but the cast shaking themselves dry under a blue light can’t come close to the magic of the lake scene. 

If you’ve watched the film so often you can recite it word for word (guilty), you won’t find a lot of surprises up on the stage – the theatre adaptation sticks pretty tightly to the original plot and script. 

Baby (Charlie Varlet) and Johnny (Joel Benjamin)
Baby (Charlie Varlet) and Johnny (Joel Benjamin)
Dirty Dancing is at the Palace Theatre in Manchester
Dirty Dancing is at the Palace Theatre in Manchester
Credit: Danny Kaan

It means that a lot of the moments that would translate best to stage – the underground dance party in the staff quarters, the montage of Baby learning to dance, the Hungry Eyes scene – are condensed into the first half of the musical. 

The second half feels a little flat in comparison, just a lot of bickering and storming around the stage… up until that grand finale, when Johnny bursts from the back of the theatre and storms the stage to complete that iconic lift. 

It’s worth all the trundle just for that final euphoric moment.

Dirty Dancing is at the Palace Theatre in Manchester until Saturday 3 October, then will return next summer. You can grab tickets HERE.

Read more

Featured image: Danny Kaan

More Art & Culture

Art & Culture

‘Once in a lifetime’ package holidays to Iceland from Manchester have returned for winter

Art & Culture

Manchester Art Fair returns this autumn with more than 180 exhibitors under one roof

Greater Manchester announces £15m investment in grassroots culture

Art & Culture

Greater Manchester announces £15m investment in grassroots culture

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches