Some of Manchester’s best street food traders will come together at Castlefield Bowl this September, slinging out bagels, burgers, bao and burritos to Laughterama punters across five glorious days.
Local favourites including Triple Bagels, Mi & Pho and T’arricrii will all come together from 21-25 September, slinging out their best-selling dishes as part of Manchester’s new comedy festival.
Featuring big names like Nish Kumar, James Acaster, Rosie Jones, British Comedy Award winner Aisling Bea, Dylan Moran, Phil Wang and Josh Widdicombe, Laughterama will pair award-winning comedy with some of the best food trucks in the city.
The festival will also welcome a number of homegrown Manchester comics including Stephen Bailey, and Josh Jones.
Brought to Manchester by a team of siblings who already run successful comedy festivals in London and the south of England, organisers hope this event will be the first of many.
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As well as catching some uproarious stand up sets, ticket holders will also get to feast on some of Manchester’s best street food throughout the event.
Alongside some established food favourites, the festival has also booked up and comer Thief Street, Mexican taco truck Nina’s and top-end kebab kitchen Eat Like a Greek.
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Meanwhile, sweet tooths will be catered to with pancakes from Eat Dutch Lekker or a range of sugary treats from Ravenous Fudge.
Keeping reading for a breakdown of what food to expect to discover as part of this year’s brand new comedy festival.
T’arricrii
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Image: T’arricrii
Image: T’arricrii
Run by Riccardo and Romeo, two Sicilian brothers with a reputation for making some of the best arancini (Sicilian rice balls) in Manchester, T’arricrii began life at Hatch on Oxford Road in 2018. Over the years, the duo have firmly cemented themselves as a local favourite.
Eat Like a Greek
Image: Eat Like a Greek
Image: Eat Like a Greek
Serving gyros and souvlaki from their beautiful mobile taverna (converted from a horse trailer), these Manchester newcomers are making their mark with delicious wraps dripping with olive oil and seasoning direct from the motherland, alongside other Greek favourites.
Eat Dutch Lekker
Image: Eat Dutch Lekker
Image: Eat Dutch Lekker
Get a load of these amazing Dutch desserts! Mini pancakes, loaded waffles and so much more. Try a new spin on some of your all-time favourite delights with fresh ingredients and an abundance of toppings made right before your eyes.
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Triple Bagels
Image: Triple B
Image: Triple B
Serving up the best salt-beef bagels and burgers around, if you love New York-style street food then you’ll be making a (Triple)B-line for the house-cured and smoked pastrami, juicy burgers, fries, sides and more.
Thief Street
Combining retro style with handmade potato waffles and restaurant quality toppings, this newcomer has fast become a city favourite. It is the brainchild of Manchester chef Jon Green, who rose up the ranks in some of the city’s finest eateries like Trof, Sugo Pasta Kitchen and The Refuge before spending lockdown masterminding the perfect waffle.
Ravenous Fudge
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Image: Ravenous Fudge
Image: Ravenous Fudge
This is a long way from your typical fudge. With flavours like banana and chocolate, vegan sea salt and caramel, chilli chocolate or maple and walnut, Ravenous Fudge has revolutionised this classic treat since forming in Essex in 2015 and are bringing all their fudge-y delights to Manchester.
Mi & Pho
Image: Mi & Pho
Image: Mi & Pho
South Manchester’s hugely popular, multi award-winning outfit guarantees its legions of fans fresh and delicious offerings inspired by Vietnam’s street-side vendors. Get ready for an explosion of Southeast Asian flavour with their Buns, …
Nina’s Taco Truck
Image: Nina’s
Image: Nina’s
Serving fully plant based Mexican street food from their lovingly converted retro caravan, Team Nina bring you brimful burrito bowls of smokey seitan chicken, refried beans, guacamole, home-made salsa and lots more besides.
Tickets for each individual comedy event are priced separately at £25 a head (not including booking fee) for general admission. Food is not included with your ticket and must be purchased separately.
Thanks to Terminal 2’s major upgrade, now holidays really do start at Manchester Airport
Danny Jones
It’s a phrase that’s almost as old as air travel itself, but luckily, Manchester Airport are well and truly getting your holidays started early, courtesy of the new and improved Terminal 2.
T2‘s massive upgrade technically finished in 2025, but with other bits debuting already this year and even more to come in 2026, Manchester’s biggest terminal is a more fully-fledged travel hub than ever.
Complete everything from the essentials and a healthy supply of food and drink, to lots of luxuries and plenty of ways to unwind and kill time between both before and after flights, you can feel extra smug about getting to the airport early.
As part of their latest ‘Terminal Explorer’ campaign, we recently paid a visit to see just how much fun we could get up to in and around T2. Spoilers: quite a lot.
With a little help from their wayfinding screens dotted around the various areas, from the World Duty Free section and ever-growing internal shopping district, to all the bars and restaurants that have opened since the big refurb, we took ourselves on a very fun day out.
And that was without even having an actual holiday booked to look forward to, so just imagine how good it must feel to top all this off with a real trip away.
In fact, you don’t even need to think that hard about it; roughly 80% of all passengers heading in and out of Manchester Airport now come through T2, and with the experience improving all the time, they’re seeing a serious uptick in visitors and their time spent enjoying some leisure before their getaway.
From additions like the LEGO store to keep the kids entertained, as well as numerous places to grab a brew, a bite, or even your first adult beverage of the holiday, it’s up to you how you choose to explore – they’ve just given you plenty of options.
There’s no bigger testament to the latest hospitality offerings in Terminal 2 than the recently opened Great Northern Market, which brings a rather big taste of the Mackie Mayor vibe to Manchester Airport.
A VERY comfortable place to wind down any wait times before you fly.
You’ll be blown away by the amount of choice on offer in here – we certainly were – and, of course, the multi-vendor culinary destination epicentre is just one of many fantastic food and drink offerings now boasted by the T2 ‘2.0.’
For instance, we could happily spend most of the time before our next hypothetical flight just chilling in the super stylish Fever-Tree Bar, which includes a wonderful range of breakfast and light bites, charcuterie boards, small plates, sandwiches and so on – plus a cocktail menu perfect for any occasion.
Put simply, you’ve now been given all the tools and means to turn downtime of almost any duration into an excuse to explore Manchester Airport at its best; in fact, scratch that: it’s an opportunity to go for a wander and make the most of it – and it’s one you don’t want to waste.
Whether it’s stocking up pre-flight or kicking back with your first drink of many, don’t just be another person sitting watching the departures board, be a terminal explorer.
Sensory-friendly Northern Lights to illuminate Printworks’ digital ceiling to mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week
Emily Sergeant
This week marks the start of Neurodiversity Celebration Week.
Approximately 15-20% of the population has a neurological difference, according to the most recent statistics, and Neurodiversity Celebration Week (16-20 March 2026) highlighting the importance of championing, raising awareness of, and accommodating neurodiverse people.
And Printworks is marking the occasion in its own special way, with a series of new initiatives designed to create a more ‘inclusive’ and ‘sensory-friendly’ environment.
You may already know that the popular indoor entertainment complex in the heart of Manchester city centre is home to more than a dozen bars, restaurants, and leisure activities – including one of the largest IMAX screens on the continent – and Europe’s largest digital ceiling too, of course, but this week’s experience is unlike anything the venue has welcomed before.
Throughout the week, Printworks will be transforming its digital ceiling with calming Northern Lights and constellations which have been specifically designed to create a relaxed, sensory-friendly atmosphere for visitors with additional sensory needs.
Northern Lights to illuminate Printworks’ digital ceiling to mark Neurodiversity Celebration Week / Credit: Supplied
As part of a long-term commitment to accessibility and inclusivity, Printworks is also introducing a weekly sensory-friendly hour every Sunday too, where lighting throughout the venue will be dimmed, and music and SFX volumes reduced for a reduced-stimulus environment.
200 free sensory packs – which can be collected at Vue cinema – with a pair of ear defenders and sensory-friendly toys, designed to support visitors who may benefit from sensory tools while enjoying the venue, are also on offer throughout the course of the week.
On top of this, there’s also a range of autism-friendly cinema screenings taking place on the last Sunday of every month at 10:30am.
An additional autism-friendly screening will be taking place with a showing of Hoppers this Sunday 22 March at 10:30am, with tickets now available from Vue’s website.
“Neurodiversity Celebration Week is an important time for brands and venues to recognise and support the diverse ways visitors and audiences experience the world,” commented Dan Davis, who is the General Manager at Printworks.
The Manc -
14th September 2022 
