Things To Do

The best places to go pumpkin picking near Manchester this Halloween

Here's just some of the best pumpkin patches near Manchester to head on down to.

Dolly Busby Dolly Busby - 19th October 2021

Pumpkin season is here.

With everything from pumpkin carving and pumpkin picking, to pumpkin spiced lattes, and more, that time of year has officially arrived and we’re ready for it.

Folk tradition says pumpkins ward off Stingy Jack and other spirits, and they also look good by the window and scare away the nosey neighbours too, but instead of going to your local supermarket for a pumpkin this year, how about doing things the old way and harvesting the pumpkins yourself.

It’s a wholesome activity to do this half term, so wrap up warm and let the kids run around while you fill your wheelbarrow with fresh orange pumpkins.

Here’s just some of the best pumpkin patches near Manchester to head on down to.

ADVERTISEMENT

___

The Dunham Pumpkin Patch

Altrincham

ADVERTISEMENT

Grab a wheelbarrow and browse the Hewitt family’s vast field of pumpkins.

The family have been growing pumpkins for 30 years, but decided to open their patch to the public last year, and for just £5, you get entrance and parking on the site – which then gets taken off the price of any pumpkins you catch.

The fun doesn’t stop there either, as stunning scenic walks around Dunham Massey Hall and Gardens can be polished off with wood fired pizza and Dunham Massey’s homemade cider made from their own apples.

ADVERTISEMENT

Feed off the land this Halloween.

Malpas Pick Your Own Pumpkins

Cheshire

Malpas has hidden their pumpkins in a maze.

So if you’re up for the challenge, then somewhere at the heart of the maize maze lies a kingdom of pumpkins ready for you to rescue, while a 100 scarecrows are also hiding somewhere in the maize, along with a Harry Potter area.

There’s no booking needed for this one, but themed fancy dress is encouraged.

ADVERTISEMENT
Credit: Flickr

Kenyon Hall Farm

Warrington

Open on weekends, Kenyon Hall Farm has a 15,000 strong pumpkin patch.

If doing the dirty work isn’t your style, pre-picked pumpkins are available and you can explore the farm shop or watch your loved ones from the safety of the café.

Book a £2 ticket online for entry, and pumpkins can vary in price.

Lancaster Park & Animal Farm

Chadderton

ADVERTISEMENT

A great place to spend a day this half term, Lancaster Park & Animal Farm in Chadderton doesn’t just stop at pumpkin carving, as there’s also costume competitions, tales in a Spooky Haunted House, and a whole farm of animals.

Alternative activities that come with the farm include mini-quads and zip lines.

Book online where tickets range from £4-£8, including the pumpkins you take away and access to the activities.

Credit: Flickr

Cockfields Farm

Ashton-under-Lyne

Head on down to Cockfields Farm to pick your perfect pumpkin, create your monster in the Spooky Carving Cave, and tire out the kids with fancy dress and dance competitions, fairground rides, and hand-feeding the farm animals.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tickets range from £4.95 to £12.95 per person, depending on ages and how many pumpkins you take home.

Reddish Vale Farm

Stockport

Pumpkin picking is back at Reddish Vale Farm, but you’ll want to go quickly as it’s a popular spot.

Tickets are £11.50 for adults and £16 for children, with one pumpkin included per paying person, extra pumpkins are £5 each.

Credit: Pxfuel

Libby‘s Pumpkin Patch

Macclesfield

ADVERTISEMENT

It’s cheap and definitely cheerful, and after welcoming thousands of families for the first time last year, Libby’s Pumpkin Patch is back and knows how to host a pumpkin party.

Tickets cost £2.50 per car, and pumpkins range from £1 for ‘minis’ up to £20 for ‘monsters’.

Roby Mill Pumpkin Patch

Skelmersdale

Affordable fun is just what we want and Roby Mill is completely free entry and parking.

Open every day from now until Halloween, pumpkins are everywhere, with prices starting from £2, so you can either dig up a cute mini one yourself, or roll your giant one home – the choice is yours.

ADVERTISEMENT

Tickets are advised during weekends and half term, but on quieter times, you can just turn up with shovels.

Woore Fruit Farm

Crewe

Ready, set… harvest.

Woore Fruit Farm is ripe and ready for picking, and it’s open 9am to 5pm daily, so you can go down and grab a pumpkin before Halloween is here.

___

Featured Image – PublicDomainPictures

Things To Do

Three Little Words and Seven Brothers Brewery are moving into Kampus this summer

Georgina Pellant Georgina Pellant

This week, Manchester’s waterside neighbourhood Kampus has revealed that two of Manchester’s best-loved indie drinks producers will be moving in over the summer.

Manchester Gin’s bar and distillery Three Little Words will be taking over the infamous bungalow, whilst Ancoats’ favourite Seven Brothers Brewery will temporarily move into the neighbourhood’s red-brick Minshull Warehouse – previously tipped to house a new taproom from Cloudwater.

This summer, the brewery – first founded in Salford nine years ago by the McAvoy brothers – will open the doors to the warehouse serving up their popular family beers alongside a few Kampus specials.

With seating inside and out, once the warmer nights arrive drinkers can once again enjoy the Manchester neighbourhood’s canalside beer garden.

Image: Three Little Words
Image: Seven Brothers

Set to open officially from the long Easter weekend, for the first time tables and chairs will be nestled throughout the giant tree ferns and palms, with visitors able to sample the delights of the impressive foodie community – including Nell’s, Pollen, Great North Pie, The Beeswing wine bar and Yum Cha.

Elsewhere, in the Bungalow popular local gin distillers and cocktail pros Three Little Words will serve up a sleek cocktail menu – all made up from their portfolio of multi-award-winning spirits from The Spirit of Manchester Distillery.

First opened in 2019 by Seb & Jen Heeley-Wiggins, the founders of Manchester Gin, luxurious cocktail bar Three Little Words has since won awards for its signature menu of innovative cocktails.

Both will kick-start on Friday 7 April, with an Easter Weekender of booze, beats and eats in store – with Nell’s Pizza also joined by guest DJs throughout the weekend.

The season is a major moment for Kampus, the first year when the neighbourhood will have a full force of eclectic independent operators fully trading.

More names are set to join too. Red Light will lift the curtain on the insta-friendly Little David Street LGTBQ+ cocktail den, with the opening date to be revealed in the coming weeks, whilst taqueria and mezcaleria Madre is currently fitting out its space ready to bring its take on Mexican goodness to Manchester.

Read more: Rio Ferdinand is helping change young lives with community programmes in Oldham and Salford

Seb Heeley-Wiggins, Master Distiller & Co-Owner The Spirit of Manchester Distillery & Three Little Words, said: “We’ve got such a loyal following and we’ve been on the hunt for a spot where people could enjoy our cocktails in a beautiful outdoor setting … spritzes in the sunshine. 

“Kampus absolutely fits that bill and will be an incredible summer posting for our team. We’ll be bringing our signature menu as well as some seasonal creations unique to Kampus.

“There’s so much going at the neighbourhood that we’ll be in good company. We’ve already got celebrations planned throughout the summer months, where we’ll be collaborating with incredible brands and creatives, and we’ve got a big surprise in store for next month. We just need a long, hot summer now.”

Read more: Police are working to bring ‘murder mastermind’ John Belfield back to Manchester after drugs arrest abroad

Keith McAvoy, CEO for Seven Brothers, said: “We’ve been big fans of Kampus for a while so we jumped at the chance to put on a summer-long party and create a new beerhouse here. The historic setting is stunning and we know we’ll create, hands down, the best beer garden in Manchester.

“We’re a family run business, born here in Greater Manchester. Our Kampus run is a fitting celebration for how far the brewery has come with the incredible support of every person who’s ever enjoyed a SEVEN BRO7HERS pint.

“We’ll be in good company with our brilliant independent neighbours and encourage everyone to come spend summer with us.”

Seven Brothers will be open Thursday to Sunday every week all summer, whilst Three Little Words will open Wednesday to Sunday.

Featured image – Kampus

Things To Do

Manchester Pride Festival reveals 2023 line-up, including Pabllo Vittar, Jake Shears and Natasha Bedingfield

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

Manchester Pride Festival has just revealed its 2023 line-up, promising the most diverse and representative bill of performers to date across the city’s world-famous Gay Village.

The beloved LGBTQ+ celebration will be back in the city over the August bank holiday weekend, shining a spotlight on local and international queer talent.

The Gay Village Party will have a line-up that’s 96% queer, with 54% of performers women, 51% people of colour, and more than 42% from trans and non-binary communities.

Headlining will be Brazilian drag sensation Pabllo Vittar, international pop star (and former Scissor Sisters vocalist) Jake Shears, and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner Danny Beard.

They’ll be joined by pop performances from Natasha Bedingfield, and Lisa Scott-Lee from STEPS.

The line-up has been co-created with Manchester’s queer communities, and will span four days and multiple venues and stages.

Manchester Pride Festival. Credit: Supplied

Manchester Pride Festival will once again host takeovers, including the Queer Asian Takeover, Trans Filth & Joy, Black Pride MCR and the Queer Women’s Takeover.

The main performances will take place on three stages; the Village stage, the Mancunity stage, and the Alan Turing stage.

Takeovers this year include the Queer Asian Takeover, Trans Filth & Joy, Black Pride MCR and the Queer Women’s Takeover.

Back to that line-up then, and Pabllo Vittar is the most-followed drag queen in the world, with a social following of 34.8m and 4m monthly listeners on Spotify.

The Manchester Pride march. Credit: Supplied
Manchester Pride Parade. Credit: Supplied
Manchester Pride Parade. Credit: Supplied

Meanwhile Jake Shears has dominated the charts while part of the Scissor Sisters with hits including Filthy/Gorgeous and I Don’t Feel Like Dancing. He’s now pursuing a solo career with a new album due to be released later this year.

Local drag star Danny Beard is also back on the line-up hosting Danny Beard and Friends for the fifth consecutive year.

Also returning to Manchester Pride Festival is multidimensional cultural icon Cheddar Gorgeous, who placed as runner-up in last year’s RuPaul’s Drag Race UK (beaten only by Danny Beard).

They’ll be joined by season four Drag Race UK stars Black Peppa and Dakota Schiffer.

The festival’s first Queer Asian Takeover will celebrate queer brown joy, headlined by international DJ Gok Wan, who will be joined on stage by local talent including The Bitten Peach, a gender-diverse, pan-Asian collective showcasing joy and excellence, Gracie T, who runs a South Asian creative collective and platform for unrepresented artists, and House of Spice, an LGBTQ+ South Asian and Middle Eastern performance house.

Read more

Trans led and curated event Trans Filth & Joy, hosted by Milk Presents and Trans Creative, returns for 2023 where party-goers can expect to be entertained by a night packed with DJs, drag, burlesque, cabaret, activism and music. Headlining Trans Filth & Joy is British drag queen BIMINI, who is best known for competing on the second series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, and has since been awarded ‘Drag Hero’ by Gay Times magazine.

Black Pride MCR will take festival goers on a musical journey, celebrating the black roots of house music, disco, funky house, vocal and tribal, all brought together by exceptional DJs and iconic dancers.

Fat Pride also returns, celebrating big bodies with an evening of dancing, partying, showing off and feeling good.

The Cabaret Stage will again host The Enby Show, described as an ‘electric, unique and vibrant’ gender-bending variety show that ‘bins the binary and crashes the cis-tem’.

This stage will also host Pecs Drag Kings, a female/non-binary theatre and cabaret company who’ve been creating critically acclaimed shows for the LGBTQ+ community since 2013.

Manchester Pride Parade. Credit: Supplied

Festival goers can also expect exciting and diverse performances from Queeriosity Cabaret, Cutie-POC Cabaret, and Disabled Queer Joy Cabaret.

Other events announced as part of the Pride celebrations include Youth Pride MCR and Family Pride MCR, where young people and families will be able to join in the celebrations with a series of performances and events, such as Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show, an unmissable doggy extravaganza, and Disney Classics performed by The Untold Orchestra.

Other performers include Kelly Llorenna from N-Trance (Set You Free), Jodie Harsh, Misty Chance and Friends, Lucky Roy Singh, Queen Bayard, La Discothèque Orchestra, Manchester Residents Blasha and Allatt (Meat Free/Frixxxion), Kim Lana, Mix-Stress and Friends, SWAGGA, Monopoly Phonic, Kele Le Roc, and Tom Aspaul.

Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said: “We have worked closely with our communities to offer a line-up that is for the community, by the community. As a world leading city and an organisation that is spearheading the global Pride movement, our aim is to provide a platform which elevates and showcases local queer performers alongside renowned international LGBTQ+ talent, with a little support from our allies. This is Manchester and this is how our communities want us to celebrate our Pride.

“We are so proud to announce that our line-up consists of 96% queer performers, 54% female performers, 51% people of colour, and over 42% trans and non-binary performers.”

Manchester Pride Festival, in partnership with Booking.com, takes place over four days in Manchester city centre on August bank holiday weekend (25 – 28 August) and is made up of several fringe events.

The events of Manchester Pride Festival 2023 are free to attend with the exception of the Gay Village Party, tickets for which can be purchased through Ticketmaster now. £2.50 from every ticket will be donated to the Manchester Pride Community Fund, with the money going directly to LGBTQ+ causes and projects in Greater Manchester through the distribution of grants.

The Manchester Pride Festival 2023 Gay Village Party line-up in full

Pabllo Vittar | Jake Shears

Natasha Bedingfield | Danny Beard | Jodie Harsh | Gok Wan | BIMINI |

Lisa Scott-Lee | Cheddar Gorgeous | Black Peppa | Jonbers Blonde | Monki | Gracie T | Angie Brown | La Discotheque Orchestra | Kelly Llorenna (N-Trance) | Dakota Schiffer | Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show | Blasha and Allatt (Meat Free/Frixxxion)

Kim Lana | Mix-Stress and Friends | The Bitten Peach | House of Spice | The Enby Show | Queeriosity Cabaret | The Noirtones | Queer Women’s Takeover | SWAGGA | Black Pride MCR | Danny Beard and Friends | Fat Pride | Cutie-POC Cabaret | Queer Asian Takeover | Disabled Queer Joy Cabaret | Trans Filth and Joy | Misty Chance and Friends | Your Manchester | Monopoly Phonic | Kele Le Roc performing Basement Jaxx ‘Romeo’ | Val The Brown Queen and Blaq Ivory presents | The Runway by Banksie | DJ Stacy Bee | Tom Aspaul | Violet Blonde | Lucky Roy Singh | Jsky | Reeta Loi | Queen Bayard | Barb | Lady Bushra | Misty Chance | The BollyWitch | Lill | Banskie | Joanna Cuddle | Sam Buttery | Ivy Profemme | Leila Rafoui | Joe Spencer | The Niallist | Minara ‘El Waters | Club Clam | What She Said | Vanilla Girls | FATCAMP | Pecs Drag Kings | The Fat Britney | | Ghetto Fabulous | Donna Trump | DJ Nkay | DJ KL | Carrot | Flick | Queens in Kicks | Frequency 3 | DJ Klitbait | Cyro | Club Zindagi | Belinda Scandal | Disney Classics with The Untold Orchestra | DJ Billy Andrew | DJ Callum Parr | Duniya Dhoom | Shanika Sunrise | Immy Terial | Jason Patel | Rikki Beadle-Blair |

A Special Guest soon to be announced

To find out more about Manchester Pride, visit the website: www.manchesterpride.com

Featured image: Supplied

More Things To Do

Sponsored

Huge line-up revealed for Leeds International Festival of Ideas

Things To Do

Ricky Gervais adds ANOTHER Manchester date to Armageddon tour – how to get tickets

Manchester

Viral sportswear brand Gymshark is holding a huge free fitness event in Manchester this weekend

Audio

Clint Boon takes us around Manchester's iconic Deaf Institute

Eats

We go meatballs deep with Mira's traditional Neapolitan sandwiches