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.
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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.
A new festive light maze is heading to Cheshire for the first time this December
Thomas Melia
A brand new attraction is making its way to Cheshire for the first time ever this December with the hopes to get us all into the festive spirit.
Just outside of Manchester, titled‘Spectrum: A World of Illumination’, this spectacular never-seen-before trail is lighting up Cheshire with a month-long residency in Knutsford.
Running every day in December besides Christmas Day, plus a few extra dates in November, the spectacular display will be inviting guests along for 30 out of 31 days in the yuletide month.
The immersive maze will feature moving giant candy canes, overhead Christmas-inspired installations like a laser show, and tunnels of light.
Visitors are encouraged to get stuck in with hidden objects and handles and buttons which lead to secret rooms and festive treasures to be found and explored throughout the attraction.
You can even create a Christmas carol medley of your own and sing to your heart’s content with a section of the trail featuring sound tubes.
There’s a mostly open top too, so you can look up into the night sky as you explore the maze.
There’s not only a feast for your eyes but also for your Santa bellies too as a selection ofhand-picked food vendors will be supplying tons of festive goodies to warm your soul.
A new festive light maze is heading to Cheshire for the first time this December. Credit: Supplied
Spectrum: A World of Illumination caters to everyone offering spaces for guide dogs, quieter time slots for those wanting a calmer experience and accessibility all-round where possible.
This is expected to be one of the best Christmas activities of the year, designed by specialists Access Events, who have some impressive feats behind them.
The multi award winning company has had involvement and created some of the most impressive light features to date including the Weather Project at the Tate, the e-Sports arena build, and turning the Berlin TV Tower into a football.
They’re so certain this event will do well there’s already news and information about a 2025 event between Access Events and Royal Cheshire Show Grounds.
Tickets for ‘Spectrum: A World of Illumination’ are already on sale and those of you who are eager to start planning your Christmas calendar can get tickets from Eventbrite.
MTV is hosting a week-long venue takeover with some exciting artists to celebrate the EMAs coming to Manchester
Danny Jones
In case you haven’t heard, the MTV EMAs (European Music Awards) is coming to Manchester later this year, and to mark the massive occasion, they’re hosting a huge week-long takeover at some of the city’s best venues.
This may be a first for Manchester but this isn’t the only time the award ceremony has come to the UK, with London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast all having hosted it before, and with the world-leading Co-op Live now attracting endless global artists, the state-of-the-art venue was a no-brainer.
However, they’re no muppets, these MTV lot: they know that Manchester has one of if not the best music scenes on the planet and has some of the most influential venues to back it up, so they’ve decided to partner with several of them for a celebratory gig takeover.
Running from 5-9 November (Tuesday to Saturday), MTV Music Week will host a series of live music nights at some of the city’s best concert spots and nightlife destinations.
Showcasing both rising and well-established artists from Manchester and beyond, MTV‘s annual Music Week for the 2024 EMAs isn’t just sponsoring a few extra shows ahead of the awards do, they’ll also bespotlighting homegrown artists, hosting unforgettable performances as well as industry workshops.
With the likes of Rebellion, Band on the Wall and Soup Kitchen, as well as Depot Mayfield and Aviva Studios – home to The Warehouse Project and Factory International, respectively – all taking part, this is effectively a week-long tour of some Manc’s most magical music venues.
Acts that we’re excited to see include homegrown indie and alternative lads, Larkins; fast-rising electronic cult favourite, salute, as well as drum and bass duo Piri and Tommy, just to name a few.
Better still, with sub-brands like MTV Push Live, Club MTV and YO! MTV Raps hosting several of these stages, you can rest assured that there’s plenty of variety when it comes to genres.
Alongside MTV Music Week and the 2024 MTV EMAs, Paramount’s Creators House is also heading to Manchester that same week.
As part of their ‘Content for Change’ event series, this company-wide, social impact-led initiative will take place across between 7-9 November, with a packed slate of programming and networking opportunities aimed at Manchester’s creative community.
Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said of the event series: “Our music scene in Manchester is the stuff of legend and we’re known the world over for our brilliant musicians and iconic venues.
“Music Week will be a great showcase for our city and the stage is set for an incredible Manchester music takeover. A boost for the industry, our economy, and fantastic opportunities for some of our best homegrown artists as well as unforgettable performances for audiences to enjoy.”
The EMAs land on 10 November but before then, you can grab tickets for any of the 10 exciting events happening over MTV Music Week Manchester 2024 HERE. Catch you there!
The Manc -
14th September 2022 
