Did you know that a massive interactive gaming experience has returned to Manchester for the first time in three years?
With more than 160 consoles and hundreds of games to play, Power UP is now back at the Science and Industry Museum in the heart of the city centre and it’s already been taking ticket-holders on a journey through five decades of gaming.
Everything from retro arcade games to state-of-the-art virtual reality are available to play at the hit event – and every ticket includes unlimited play all day too.
Power UP is taking place every weekend and school holiday up until December 2023.
From the Atari 2600 and the Dreamcast, to the Playstation 5 and the latest in virtual reality technology, Power UP is giving visitors of all levels the chance to live their best gaming life and experience first-hand how far games and gaming technologies have advanced over the years.
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Some of the other consoles at the museum include SNES, Wii, Mega Drive, N64, Xbox, and more.
Power UP is now back at the Science and Industry Museum / Credit: Science Museum Group
Visitors to the ultimate new interactive gaming experience can take a trip down memory lane by playing retro classics like Pong and Pac-Man, rocking out on Guitar Hero, and also trying their hand at the wildly-popular Fortnite.
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Power UP is also giving gaming fans the chance to follow the development of some iconic characters like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog through the decades.
Visitors will also get to discover games made by winners and nominees from the annual BAFTA Young Games Designers Awards – which are open to children and young people, and celebrate the creativity, skill, and imagination of young games makers.
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The interactive experience has more than 160 consoles and hundreds of games to play / Credit: Science Museum Group
And new for 2022, you can also be inspired by the local people behind the games and companies who have made a splash in the world of gaming in the new section dedicated to Manchester’s gaming industry.
From early success stories like Ocean Software and Software Creations, to contemporary indie developers like Acid Nerve.
“Power UP has always been a big hit with our visitors,” said Mark Cutmore – Head of Commercial Experiences at the Science Museum Group.
“[The experience] offers a fun space to enjoy past and present gaming technology, experience the latest developments and reminisce about old favourites as the gaming industry is a key component of Manchester’s creative, digital and tech industries.
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You can experience first-hand how far games and gaming technologies have advanced over the years / Credit: Science Museum Group
“This interactive exhibition will help to inspire game designers and software engineers of the future.
“We’re excited to be giving so much time to enjoy and keep returning to this experience during its longest run ever at the museum [and] we’re also really proud to be showcasing our city’s amazing contributions to the industry through the new Manchester Made section.
Tickets to Power UP grant each person unlimited access to the gaming experience on the day booked.
Tickets will set you back £6 per child and concession, £8 per adult, £7 per senior, and there is a £1 discount per ticket for families.
Grab yours on the Science and Industry Museum website here.
A month-long, mile-long, margarita bar crawl is returning to Manchester
Daisy Jackson
An award-winning bar crawl that’s all about celebrating margaritas is returning to Manchester this month.
El Tequileño’s Margarita Mile will see venues right across the city centre creating bespoke tequila cocktails, alongside events and loads more.
The mile-long, month-long celebration will kick off on 16 February, with 11 brilliant local venues taking part this year.
Those involved will include Mexican restaurant favourite Madre (and its sister site, Mexican pool hall Salon Madre), margarita bar Ramona, and cosy cocktail dens like The Daisy.
Also joining in this year is the city’s newest rooftop destination, Chotto Matte, which is home to Claude’s Skyview Bar with staggering views over Albert Square to the Manchester Town Hall.
It’s all been handily laid out into a mile(ish)-long bar crawl that will showcase the best in tequila and some of the best watering holes in the city.
Billed as the ‘ultimate margarita experience’, you can spend the next month visiting participating venues to sample bespoke menus, with the main celebrations taking place during Mile Week from 16 to 22 February – ahead of National Margarita Day on 22 February.
The Margarita Mile launched in Manchester in 2023 and was initially a week-long celebration, designed to celebrate quality tequila, champion bartender creativity, and tempt people back out into bars during the quietest time of the year for hospitality.
Now in its fourth year, it’s grown to an award-winning event (it was named The Spirits Business Best Event of the Year 2025), spanning a full month.
Maps of this year’s Margarita Mile across Manchester are available online HERE, as well as at all participating venues, with no tickets required.
Steffin Oghene, VP Business Development for El Tequileño, says: “Each year, the Margarita Mile grows, and we’re incredibly proud that it is now an award-winning campaign.
“Our goal has always been to share a love of craft tequila while connecting Brits with the hospitality trade, especially in such challenging times.
“With some of the best bars and bartenders in the world, it’s more important than ever to inspire the UK public to get out, enjoy the Mile, and raise a margarita.”
All the venues on the El Tequileño Margarita Mile in Manchester
New details released ahead of world-premiere exhibition taking visitors on ‘epic space adventure’
Emily Sergeant
Some exciting new details of a major exhibition taking visitors on an ‘epic space adventure’ in Manchester next month have been revealed.
Making its world premiere, Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos will invite visitors to explore our wondrous Solar System when it launches at the Science and Industry Museum in a few weeks time.
Announced in November last year fresh off-the-back of the new BBC Children’s and Education TV show, Horrible Science, the ‘thrilling’ new exhibition will encourage visitors to ‘do science the horrible way’, and join both scientists and supervillains to unveil the secrets of space.
The new exhibition will propel families up into space where mystery, intrigue, and rocket-loads of silly and surprising science await. You’ll get to venture through a series of cosmic zones, walk in the shoes of astronauts, explore the life-giving energy of the sun, marvel at mysterious moons, and discover far-off weird worlds.
Left teetering on the edge of our Solar System, explorers will then find themselves staring into the dark depths of space, on the lookout for any extra-terrestrial life that could be staring back.
Whether its sniffing astronauts’ smelly socks, dancing on an alien disco planet, feeling the tremors from a mysterious moonquake, or launching a space rocket, organisers say this new adventure will engage all the senses in a truly immersive experience.
This is the first time Horrible Science has been brought to life as a major exhibition.
Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos opens in a few weeks time / Credit: Drew Forsyth (Science Museum Group)
Visitors will get to see familiar characters from the BBC series – like Dr Big Brain, in particular – on their mission to find out more about our fascinating Solar System through interactive experiments, playful challenges, and sensory exploration.
Newly announced are the names of some of the different exciting areas of the exhibition, like ‘Awesome Astronauts’, where life aboard the International Space Station is revealed, and ‘Mysterious Moon’ where visitors explore the only place beyond Earth ever visited by humans.
There’s also ‘Sizzling Sun’, ‘Weird Worlds’, and sensory spaces like the ‘Cosy Crater’ and ‘Dreadful Deep Space’ to make the most of.
The exhibition is being developed by the Science and Industry Museum in collaboration with producers of the Horrible Science TV show, BBC Children’s and Education, and Lion Television, together with Scholastic, who are publishers of the much-loved Horrible Science book series by Nick Arnold and illustrated by Tony De Saulles.
‘Unmissable’ objects from the Science Museum Group’s world-class space collection will also be on show when the exhibition premieres.
Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos will open at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester on 13 February 2026 for an 11-month run before heading down to London, and tickets are now on sale priced at £10 – with family discounts available, and under-threes going free.
Emily Sergeant -
31st August 2022 
