If you’ve never been to Manifest before, Manchester’s regular free music festival, then you’re seriously missing out — lucky for you, it’s coming back this winter so you’ve got plenty of time to make it right.
Following a successful season of seven jam-packed events throughout spring and summer, the Manifest live music festival will once again be taking over award-winning bar The Oast House, only this time with a festive twist.
Taking place inside The Oast House’s famous winter hideaway, ‘The Teepee’, which opened for the season earlier this month, the now Manc-favourite event will see bands, solo artists, duos and taking to the stage throughout the day with interludes from resident DJs running into the night.
The first winter Manifest festival will kick off on Saturday, 28 October with a packed roster of musicians playing live from 1pm and well into the small hours — after all, it’s always a party atmosphere around these parts.
Anyone going along can expect a festival atmosphere all day and night with everything from rock, pop, soul, R&B, funk, disco and blues on show.
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Then, as night falls, The Teepee — which has become something of a local institution come the winter time — gets into full swing, with guests gathering around roaring fires and underneath twinkling fairy lights as they drink and dance the night away to the live music being played inside the tent itself.
Once again, the best part about this festival is that it’s completely free to attend and there is no pre-booking required; just turn up (we’d recommend as early as possible as this place gets busy) and enjoy yourself along with hundreds of other Mancs.
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Securing a seat is of course on a first-come, first-served basis but don’t worry, there’s still plenty of room on the terrace and inside The Teepee where people will spend most of their night on their feet anyway. Manifest is a music festival after all we’re talking about Manchester on a weekend — who’s wasting time sitting down?
Manifest, Manchester’s regular free music festival, is back for winter 2023 (Credit: Supplied)
Of course, to fuel all that singing and dancing, you’ll need to get some scran in you. Fortunately, The Oast House’s street food style menu will be on offer throughout and having enjoyed it many times ourselves, we can vouch for it being the perfect way to line your stomach.
From seasonal signature dishes like northern poutine with bone marrow gravy and Shorrock’s Lancashire cheese, katsu chicken fries, chicken or plant-based gyros; stacked burgers, hot wings, hanging kebabs and more, there’s pretty much something for everyone.
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Better still, even if this weekend is too short notice for you and you’ve already made plans, fear not: not only is Manifest returning to The Oast House again on Saturday, 25 November but regardless of whether the festival is one, The Teepee has live Manc musicians playing every single night of the week — again, all completely free to enjoy.
There are plenty of places to enjoy the winter festivities in Manchester during the build-up to Christmas, but The Oast House is well and truly up there with our all-time favourites.
Trust us, even outside The Teepee, the weather won’t put anyone off.
From drone shows to free ice lollies – what went down at Parklife 2025
Daisy Jackson
It’s been a few days since Parklife 2025 wrapped up, and now that we’ve all caught up on sleep we’re looking back on some of the highlights you might’ve missed.
With such a stacked line-up of live music, it would be impossible to have seen everything – from that sizzling final set from Charli XCX to Morgan Seatree’s emotional hometown show, plus viral sensation Interplanetary Criminal filling Matinee and D.O.D. getting the whole Big Top dancing.
One moment that you couldn’t possibly have missed if you were on the ground at Parklife festival was a surprise drone show which dazzled overhead on Saturday night.
As rap legend 50 Cent wrapped up his huge headline set on The Valley stage, and The Hangar came alive to the sound of Pawsa, fans got an extra special treat way up in the skies.
Hundreds of drones came together in an impressive, illuminated aerial display, starting with a 10-second countdown that stopped festival-goers in their tracks.
The drones then flew in formation to create iconic shapes like a yellow JD Sports duffle bag, an adidas shoebox, and the shape of a slowly-rotating Climacool trainer – and what a trainer it is.
The adidas drone show on Saturday nightadidas handed out Climacool-branded lollies and slushies50 Cent on The Valley stageadidas handed out Climacool-branded lollies and slushies
That wasn’t the only bit of attention the Climacool footwear got at Parklife either – thankful fans were treated to free Climacool branded ice lollies and slushies on their way into the festival on Saturday.
As the sun beat down on Heaton Park (bar the odd brief downpour, classic Manchester), adidas and JD Sports arrived in an ice cream truck with the coolest drop at the festival.
There was a helping hand from social media sensation Yombo to hype up the crowd before the festival had even got started.
The Climacool has a textile lining and upper work, with a perforated midsole to allow airflow and keep your feet fresh – perfect for any city adventure (and pretty perfect for a day at Parklife, we discovered).
If the Climacool trainers have caught your eye – either in the sky, at the Climacool ice cream truck, or on social media – then the good news is you can now shop them for yourselves.
Manchester bar announces huge giveaway of margaritas to celebrate first birthday
Daisy Jackson
A cocktail and shuffleboard bar in Manchester city centre is throwing a weekend-long party to celebrate its first birthday, and there are free cocktails up for grabs.
Electric Shuffle is kindly offering to give all of us presents for its birthday, with an epic free margarita giveaway.
That’s alongside an almighty party that includes resident DJs, live music performances, giveaways, exclusive offers, a cracking happy hour and a free photobooth.
The Deansgate activity bar, which has 15 interactive high-tech shuffleboards to play, each one loaded with different game modes, is celebrating one year in the city centre between Friday 20 and Sunday 22 June.
They’re throwing a three-day-long celebration, kicking off at 5pm on Friday with a giveaway of margaritas for the first 250 guests through the doors.
Then there’ll be an Electric Shuffle birthday prize game, where each slide of the puck could unlock prizes like bar tabs, brunch tickets, branded merch, cocktails, pizzas and more.
Singer-songwriter Luke McColl will be playing live during the evening, and you’ll be able to dive into a free photobooth all evening.
Electric Shuffle ManchesterFood and drink at the premium gaming barElectric Shuffle Manchester turns one
Moving on to Saturday’s celebrations – expect happy hour deals all day long, like £4 pins and £7 Sarti Spritzes, complimentary shuffleboard hire (you need to pre-book HERE), a special late brunch session between 5pm and 7pm, and more prize giveaways.
This part of the birthday party will be soundtracked by resident DJs and a live set from Elle Graham.
And if you thought that was the end of the party, you’re mistaken.
On Sunday, Electric Shuffle will host free shuffleboard all day long.
All summer, there’ll be a Margs and Margs deal, where you can get two margarita cocktails and a margarita pizza for just £25.
Electric Shuffle’s first birthday celebrations take place between 20 and 22 June.
Danny Jones -
27th October 2023 
