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.
Coffee Rules: The Greek-born cafe that’s gone on to become a beloved Greater Manchester brand
Danny Jones
It’s rare that you find a place in an already saturated food and drink scene like Greater Manchester’s that genuinely comes across like a local community cornerstone, but that’s exactly what we got when we visited Coffee Rules in Salford.
We went for a brew, one of those viral iced coffee we’ve seen on socials, and maybe a nice bite to eat – but we left with much more and the impression that these lot are onto something big.
Opened in Arta back in their home country (also up in the northwest, by the way), they’ve never struggled to get queues out the door, and it’s no different here. This one is run by two siblings, 23-year-old Thomas and his younger brother Marios, 30, who have been smashing it since 2023.
Since launching their growing UK brand in the likes of The Meadows neighbourhood – one of two they have in the city of Salford alone, the other being Swinton – they’ve brought the lines with them. With authentic Greek food and drink like this, it’s not hard to see why.
They’ve now expanded to more than eight sites total, including one still keeping their own local reputation alive over in Athens, and this looks to be just the beginning.
Having not only spread across the ten boroughs but further out into the region with their Liverpool locations as well as a Yorkshire stronghold up in Sheffield, there’s more to come from Coffee Rules, both in terms of premises and their plans to take on the rest of the brunch game and beyond.
Suburban Mancs may have already seen the regular midday and weekend crowds that pack out their Chorlton venue, the Rusholme one is often filled with fresh-faced uni students in need of their caffeine fix, and it’s an increasingly similar story for those based in Bolton.
Or maybe you’re one of the many people based in Manchester city centre, who nip to their quiet, tucked-away corner of Ancoats for a fresh bake or even to have your eye caught by some of their merch with that modern mythological-inspired logo.
Whichever one happens to be closest to you, you’ll have the same satisfying experience, from sipping on speciality coffee and the scran, to the service and all-around atmosphere.
They’re also about to start hosting board game nights over at their Salford site, where they’ll be making the most of their large terrace with plenty of seating, which also has the added bonus of a retracted pergola – perfect for sunny days or simply sheltering from the Manc rain.
One thing we also noticed was just how many locals not only popped in throughout our time there, but the sheer number that had chosen to start their day at this particular spot.
There’s a regular Greek crowd, of course, but there’s also the native Salfordian and those currently residing in and around the up-and-coming area, who were pulling up in the large car park and taking a pew, or even those just looking for quick and top-quality grab-and-go stuff.
In fact, it’s one of the quickest venues we’ve seen fill up that fast in a hot, Med minute.
Speaking of, whether it be one of their superb Spanish lattes, or the equally sweet, sultry and viral ‘Freddo Cappuccino’, or their traditional spanakopita, not to mention their many Mediterranean pastry variations, there’s a big call for pretty much everything on the menu.
We could go on at length in listing what impressed us about just this one Coffee Rules branch, and we’ve made many trips to their Chorlton one in the past already, but it’s probably best that we just urge you to give it a try sometime soon. Trust us, you won’t be disappointed.
This is one of the fastest-growing franchises in the UK, and it’s no wonder they keep pulling in plaudits and invites to bigger and better industry within the industry as time goes on events over the past few years.
Oh, and one more thing, there’s plenty of savoury stuff that you’ll likely fall in love with, but we highly reccommend ordering the red velvet. Wow…
Everything you need to know about the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup before it comes to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
The countdown is really on now to one of the biggest sporting events of the year – the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup will land in Manchester in just a few weeks’ time.
The upcoming cricket tournament has already shattered all previous ticket sales records, ahead of what promises to be the biggest Women’s T20 World Cup ever staged.
With just two weeks to go to the opening match between England and Sri Lanka, ticket sales have already surpassed 155,000.
And anticipation is growing for the sporting event of the summer, a 24-day spectacle played across seven iconic venues in England and Wales.
Manchester will play its part in this record-breaking tournament this summer, hosting several major games at Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground.
The action kicks off here in Manchester on Saturday 13 June, with a double header of matches between Scotland and Ireland, and Australia and South Africa.
So if you’re planning to go down for all the action, or just want to know what’s in store, here’s the essential info you need for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.
Manchester dates for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
The Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground will welcome seven teams across five fixtures in June, including Scotland, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and India.
Saturday 13 June – Scotland vs Ireland 10.30am
Saturday 13 June – Australia vs South Africa 2.30pm
Sunday 21 June – South Africa vs India 2.30pm
Thursday 25 June – India vs Bangladesh 2.30pm
Friday 26 June – Sri Lanka vs Scotland 6.30pm
Tickets for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup
This year’s ticket sales have surpassed the total fan attendance of 136,549 recorded across the entirety of the 2020 edition in Australia, highlighting the extraordinary momentum behind women’s cricket and the growing global demand for the women’s game.
Adult tickets start from just £15 in Manchester, you can grab tickets for games HERE.
What else is on?
Spirit Week has been driving up the excitement even further, with the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup trophy currently on a tour around the UK – including a great day out here in Manchester.
The ICC and UNICEF will also be delivering Cricket 4 Good clinics in local communities, with cricketing stars giving young cricketers tips and skills training.
What the ICC have said
ICC General Manager – Events and Corporate Communications, Gaurav Saxena said: “The 2026 edition becoming the highest-selling ICC Women’s T20 World Cup ever is another milestone for the women’s game.
“It not only highlights the incredible momentum behind women’s cricket but also reflects the strong cultural pull of an ICC pinnacle event, appeal for which is not limited to only the sports fans.
“This edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is set to be our biggest tournament till date and is expected to smash attendance and viewership records in the UK and around the world. This milestone is a hugely exciting moment for everyone involved and has been almost a year in the making.
“The response from fans is a testament to the bold, creative and well-executed marketing efforts of both the ICC and the ECB in the run-up to the tournament, more of which are to follow over the next four weeks.
“We look forward to welcoming fans from across the globe to England and Wales for what promises to be the biggest and most exciting edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.”
ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 Tournament Director, Beth Barrett-Wild said: “Surpassing 155,000 ticket sales is an incredible milestone and a powerful signal of the momentum behind the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026. To have exceeded the previous record set in Australia, before a ball has been bowled, shows just how much excitement there is for this tournament and for women’s cricket globally.
“We’ve always believed this tournament has the potential to be the biggest women’s cricket event in history, and the response from fans has been extraordinary. It reflects the growing profile of the women’s game, the strength of the teams and players on show, and the appetite for world-class sporting events across England and Wales as we build towards an unforgettable summer in 2026.”
The Manc -
14th September 2022 
