Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has issued a travel warning ahead of Tuesday night ahead of a huge night of sport and music over at the Etihad Campus.
As well as tomorrow night’s football action, with Manchester City‘s next Champions League match kicking off at 8pm, a big gig is taking place at Co-op Live just next door.
While Man City are taking on Dutch side Feyenoord in what is now an even more important fixture following Pep Guardiola having now lost five in a row for the first time in his career, over the road one of the hottest bands in the rock world right now.
Set to headline Manchester’s state-of-the-art music venue for the first time, alternative metal group Sleep Token‘s landmark Northern show will be going on simultaneously, with doors to the venue due to open from 7pm. With that in mind, TfGM has urged those attending both to plan ahead.
Taking the tram to @TheCoopLive tomorrow to watch Sleep Token?
– You can catch a tram every 6 mins from the city centre. – Hop off at Etihad Campus for the venue. – Get there early, as the area will be very busy for Man City-Feyenoord.
With both events overlapping and fans of both the band and the Blues descending upon the Etihad Stadium and the arena, respectively, the local transport authority has shared details of how to best plan journeys, be they on the tram, by car or otherwise, as well as how to avoid the crowds before and after.
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It’s estimated that around 2,000 Feyenoord fans will do the usual walk up to the Etihad from Shambles Square, which will obviously cause significant disruption in the city centre, not to mention congestion when it comes to roads, buses and the Metrolink.
As per an official update from TfGM, they stated: “Those making their way home or elsewhere should re-route their journeys away from the area, consider leaving earlier to avoid the traffic or work from home on the day if it is an option for them.
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“The transport network will be busiest between 4pm and 5:30pm on Saturday and between 5:30pm and 8pm on Tuesday. Tram travel will be the best option for most City fans and concertgoers”
Double the amount of services are set to run throughout the day along the Eccles and Ashton-under-Lyne lines and the Altrincham and Piccadilly routes will also be extended operations to serve the added footfall heading towards the Etihad Campus.
You can expect a tram approximately every six minutes from the city centre but they will obviously be very busy, so they have also suggested people consider the recently redeveloped walking route to the Etihad Campus, which is well-lit, stewarded and takes around 25 minutes from Piccadilly.
– With delays on roads in and around the city from 4pm, avoid driving. – Use our Park & Ride locations & go by tram. – Alternatively, take the well-lit, signposted walking route from Piccadilly.
Manchester City matchday bus service will also be operating as usual, with 15 different routes operating across Greater Manchester and beyond, covering a total of 64 stops, not to mention other bus companies and the wider Bee Network.
Driving is being warned against due to the increased traffic flow but for those who must, park and ride is recommended, though Ashton Moss and Ashton West Park and Ride are expected to be the busiest, so gig-goers may want to try Hollinwood, Radcliffe or Whitefield.
So, whether you’re heading to the concert or the game and however you choose to get there, be safe, look after each other and, most of all, have a great time.
You can read the full update for more details HERE.
Featured Images — G-13114 (via Wikimedia Commons)/The Manc Group
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Get Baked owner offers lifeline to hospitality staff after sudden closure of Almost Famous
Danny Jones
The owner of viral sweet treat brand, Get Baked, has given a potential lifeline to local hospitality staff in Manchester following the sudden news of Almost Famous’ nationwide closure.
Confirmation that the Northern foodie favourites and dirty burger pioneers would be shutting down all of their sites across the country hit the likes of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool like a freight train on a truly sad Monday mourning.
Although countless customers expressed their condolences online and bid farewell to the more than decade-old institution, the question of what is/will happen to their numerous staff was quickly put to the forefront.
With Almost Famous employees informing The Manc that they had been given no notice of the immediate closure and some still being owed wages, many have sadly found themselves in a crisis. Step up, Leeds-born baker and businessman, Rich Myers.
Yes, Yorkshire’s very own ‘Mr Sprinkles’ – who is slowly building a small but solid and superbly sweet dessert empire in the North – dropped a comment underneath our announcement post and kindly slid into our DMs to help get the word to those who need it most.
With Get Baked’s first-ever Manchester store set to open this year, Myers and his team are on the lookout for staff to make sure it hits the ground running.
That being said, upon learning of AF’s gutting closure, Myers messaged: “Hi everyone. We are opening a new site in NQ on February 28th, and want to do what we can to help any ex-AF staff get into new employment.
Although Get Baked is now planning to move to a different location in Manchester city centre, the opening date is still edging ever closer and we literally cannot wait.
The brand’s original home in Headingley has become internet-famous for its viral take on the legendary ‘Matilda cake’.
It’s unclear as to whether Get Baked have vacancies beyond Manchester but it’s still well worth expressing your interest if you don’t mind a job switch that revolves around sweet instead of savoury.
As for those who have unfortunately been let go by the long-standing burger joint, we sincerely hope that as many of them are snapped up by other local hospitality businesses as possible – and fast.
Almost Famous has been hit with a fair amount of criticism following the mass shutdown; reflecting on this and a raft of recent closures, one person wrote: “I feel sorry for the hospitality industry as a whole and Manchester. But not for AF if they treat their staff with such contempt!
A former employee added: “As a staff member who hasn’t received any direct communication from the business about the immediate redundancy of my contract and no payment of owed wages – the ‘top priority’ comment doesn’t exactly ring true.”
Featured Images — Get Baked (via Instagram)/The Manc Group
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Beloved Deansgate bar shares CCTV footage of customers stealing their… cushions?
Danny Jones
Beloved Manchester gin venue Atlas Bar has shared CCTV footage of two customers caught red-handed stealing their cushions this past weekend.
Firstly, don’t do that and secondly, what a random thing to steal.
Atlas on the corner of Deansgate has been an institution of the local hospitality scene for nearly three years, opening back in 1996 as one of the go-to pre-drinks destinations for those heading to the Hacienda.
Taken over and turned into the gin bar that’s popular day and night as we know it today back in 2012, it remains one of Manchester’s longest-standing independent boozers, so we were gutted and more than a bit puzzled to see them sharing images of patrons stealing property from their premises.
Sharing an understandably frustrated post, the bar wrote: “These two women decided that they needed to borrow (or maybe steal) two of our cushions last night [Sunday].
“We would be grateful if they brought them back soon! Hospitality is hard enough, without people taking what isn’t theirs to take! We would hate to have to involve the police.”
Now, we’re not going to play dumb and pretend people don’t nick the odd coaster or maybe even a pint pot from time to time – many of you reading might even be guilty of this minor sin (don’t worry, this isn’t an official investigation) – but we don’t think we’ve anyone try to sneak out with fabrics.
Petty theft it may be but it’s still theft nonetheless.
One commenter wrote: “Life is hard for hospitality at the moment and if they can afford to go out and drink they can afford to buy their own cushions”; another asked: “Are they expensive? – not the point I know but wondered why they would steal them.”
A third simply added, “What are people like? Fancy stealing a bloody cushion.”
As rightly pointed out by followers, there is plenty of stuff going against the food and drink sector as it is at the moment, so completely avoidable inconveniences like this are just as thoughtless as they are daft.
Atlas has been serving the local community for nearly thirty years, so we think it’s safe to say don’t deserve this kind of treatment, no matter how small it may seem to some.
Luckily for the mystery women pictured in the screengrab, the owners appear willing to welcome the pillow pillagers back to return the cushion without taking any further action and just be done with the whole thing.
Danny Jones -
25th November 2024 
