Parklife is one of the UK’s biggest music events and it all takes place right here in Greater Manchester this weekend – so it’s time to start planning your travel there and back.
70,000 music fans are expected to stream in to Heaton Park on each day of the two-day festival, ready to see headline performances from Aitch, The 1975, Fred Again and The Prodigy.
And with no overnight camping, all 70,000 will need to make their way home again afterwards…
Mercifully, the planned Metrolink strike this weekend has now been called off, so there are now a few different ways to get to Parklife.
If you’re heading up to Heaton Park for Parklife 2023, here’s all the information you need about trams, travel passes, shuttle buses and even walking.
— Manchester Metrolink 🚊 (@MCRMetrolink) June 8, 2023
The Parklife travel pass is a festival essential, giving you a few options of transport to the festival site with one ticket.
The pass costs £5 per day and will give you access to both the Parklife Shuttle Bus – which drops you directly inside the festival site – and the Metrolink tram services to Heaton Park.
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Tickets are sold through the Parklife website and are electronic, so you just need to show it on your phone when you board the bus.
Metrolink trams to Heaton Park
The Metrolink trams are one of the easiest ways to travel to Parklife
Trams will be running to Parklife on a six-minute frequency from town – Heaton Park is your closest tram stop, which will drop you near the West Gate entrance.
After the festival, you’ll need to use Bowker Vale, as Heaton Park tram stop will be closed.
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Metrolink services will keep running until the site is cleared, but be prepared to queue to board one.
In the city centre, several stops will be closed so that crowds can be managed safely – these are listed below and on the TfGM website.
Saturday 10 June
Market Street and Shudehill – Closed all Saturday
Heaton Park – from 9pm until the end of service
Piccadilly Gardens – between 3pm and approximately 5pm
Exchange Square – between 12pm and approximately 5pm
Sunday 11 June
Heaton Park – From 9pm until end of service
Exchange Square – between 12pm and approximately 5pm
Piccadilly Gardens – between 3pm and approximately 5pm
Market Street – between 3pm and approximately 6pm
Shudehill – between 3pm and approximately 6pm.
Parklife shuttle buses
This is one of the easiest ways to get to and from Parklife, with dedicated shuttle buses whizzing people between the city centre and the festival site.
The Parklife shuttle bus will depart from the corner of Aytoun Street (M1 2DD) and Minshull Street, near Piccadilly train station, with drop-off right inside the festival site.
Buses will depart at least once every ten minutes.
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The first bus on Saturday will depart at 9.30am, while the last one will leave at 4.30pm. On Sunday, first buses are at 10.30am and the last is at 4.30pm.
On both days, the return bus service from Heaton Park to Manchester city centre starts at 6.30pm and will continue to operate until the venue is cleared. Drop off will be on Church Street.
Taxis
Parklife. Credit: Jordan Curtis Hughes
There’ll be a couple of taxi ranks near the Parklife festival site – a Manchester Hackney Carriage Taxi Rank in Blackley New Road and a Bury Hackney Carriage Taxi Rank outside the Woodthorpe pub on Bury Old Road.
If you want to pre-book your own private hire vehicle, they need to pick you up from the pick-up point at Sainsbury’s near Heaton Park.
As always, watch out for unlicensed taxis, which are unregulated.
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Pick-up and drop-off
There’ll be a few road closures in place for Parklife and congestion is to be expected when people are leaving the festival.
There’s a designated pick-up point at Sainsburys on Heaton Park Road for anyone who’s getting a lift there or back.
Junction 19 of the M60 will be closed from 7pm on both nights. Access to the pick-up point will be via Victoria Avenue and Middleton Road.
Walking all the way to town from Heaton Park might not be top of your agenda, but it’s actually one of the most straight-forward ways to get back home.
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There’s usually a crowd of festival-goers trudging back down Bury Old Road, a walk which takes about an hour.
Obviously only attempt the walk if you’re in a group you feel safe with and look out for each other.
What travel bosses say
Sean Dyball, TfGM’s Head of Customer Experience, said: “Parklife is one of the biggest events in Greater Manchester’s calendar, and we hope everyone who attends has a safe and enjoyable weekend.
“With around 70,000 people each day, and thousands more expected to be in the city centre over the weekend for other big events, including Soccer Aid, it will be very busy on public transport and on the roads.
“Extra staff will be on hand and we’ll have as many services as possible running to help people get around, but where possible, people should consider making short journeys by walking or cycling.
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“We’ll keep our website and social media channels updated throughout the weekend and I’d encourage people to check before and during their journeys to make sure they have the latest information and advice to hand.”
The farm shop adored by Molly-Mae Hague, with pick’n’mix cakes and a wall of cheese
Daisy Jackson
There are farm shops, and then there is The Hollies.
The Cheshire institution has been around since 1959, when it began life as a humble roadside vegetable stand with an honesty box.
More than six decades later, it has evolved into the sort of place where you can arrive intending to buy a few vegetables for dinner, and leave several hours later with a basket of fancy crisps, a wedge of local cheese, a candle, a house plant and a pumpkin sculpture on legs.
And if the name sounds familiar, you may remember it from the rather sizeable Molly-Mae effect it experienced in 2023.
The influencer and former Love Island star visited The Hollies with her sister Zoe and daughter Bambi, filming a vlog around the farm shop and declaring that ‘everything in here is just unreal’ – and huge queues followed within days.
But visit now and it becomes immediately obvious why this place has become such a destination in its own right, because this isn’t just somewhere to pick up a locally grown cabbage.
The first thing that hits you is the produce. There are mountains of fruit and vegetables laid out, including marrows the size of your thigh, grapes in paper bags, and punnets of strawberries you can smell as soon as you walk through the door.
The Hollies says its farm shops stock seasonal produce alongside goods sourced from more than 70 local suppliers, as well as products from across the UK and further afield.
Fresh produce at The Hollies Farm Shop. Credit: The Manc Group
The food hall is where a normal farm shop trip – and your weekly budget – starts to spiral.
You’ll find jars of beans that look suspiciously like they belong in an extremely well-dressed pantry, Gymkhana cooking sauces, colourful pasta for people who like to photograph their dinner, and some of the poshest crisps outside of Harrods.
Then there’s the bakery, where alongside fresh bread loaves is a range of treats from local Cheshire business Allison’s Kitchen, including one particularly brilliant idea: a pick’n’mix cake (a full cake made of four slices, like an edible pie chart).
One of the most impressive sights is the wall of cheese, which showcases plenty of local produce from soft and blue cheeses through to big, punchy cheddars.
Olives beneath an olive treeThe wall of cheeseThe Hollies farm shop bakeryThe pick’n’mix cakeMulticolour pastaThe salad bar
Nearby, the deli and salad bar turns the whole thing into something approaching a countryside version of a very glamorous food hall.
There are fresh pies, pasties, quiches and sandwiches, alongside all the ingredients needed to put together a very respectable picnic.
And then there is the wine. A huge wine selection.
At this point, your original plan to ‘just pop in for some fruit’ is looking increasingly unrealistic.
And then The Hollies is so beautifully put together, it’s hard to tear yourself back outside – the olives are displayed on a softly lit table beneath an olive tree, and root vegetables sit beneath an acorn tree, like walking through a series of carefully designed little sets.
I’ve never been so inclined to take a picture of a potato before.
If you think you’ve finished once you’ve conquered the food shop, you’re very much mistaken. The Barn is the gift, retail and lifestyle side of The Hollies, and it feels like autumn has been given an unlimited budget.
Autumn gifts in The BarnThe Barn at The Hollies FarmshopMore gifts and cards at The HolliesThe Fresian RoomsThe Fresian Rooms
There are seasonal decorations, pumpkins and orange leaves alongside Jellycats and other soft toys, greetings cards, candles, mugs, bags and fashion.
Finally, there’s The Friesian Rooms, where you can sit with a coffee and cake or grab some lunch, on a sunny terrace that feels (on a good day) very akin to Soho Farmhouse.
The Hollies has taken the humble idea of buying good food directly from the countryside and turned it into a full-blown Cheshire day out – one with exceptionally good cheese, extremely photogenic vegetables, and just the occasional influencer wandering through…
The inflatable floating obstacle course you can splash around on near Manchester
Daisy Jackson
There’s a giant inflatable floating obstacle course less than an hour from Manchester, where you can slide, jump, and fall straight into a lake.
At Wild Shore Delamere, you can tackle obstacles like monkey bars, the ninja-jump, the tyre run, and a giant 3.8 metre-tall inflatable tower, all floating on the surface of the picturesque lake.
The adventure hub opened back in 2019, offering families a chance to play on Delamere Lake, or try new watersports right here in the North West.
Let’s head to that inflatable Aqua Park – even as a full-grown adult, this is one of the silliest afternoons you can imagine.
Squeeze yourself into a wetsuit then launch yourself into the lake, ready to clamber all over a course that is essentially a gigantic floating bouncy castle.
The trickiest part is managing to stay on your feet as you slip and slide your way around the course in your 50 minute session – but really, where’s the fun in staying on your feet?
Monkey BarsThe Ninja JumpThe Tyre RunThe Figure EightFeatures of the Aqua Park at Wild Shore Delamere
While you’re on the lake, you can also try other activities like the Ringo, which whips you up and down the water on a huge inflatable, while the operator seems dead-set on flinging you off.
As well as the inflatable Aqua Park, there’s the Aqua Chimp ropes course for the more gymnastic types, plus wakeboarding, paddle boarding, and open water swimming.
Wild Shore Delamere has also added a new sauna this year, which overlooks the water – you can enjoy contrast therapy, switching from the warm sauna to the lake itself.
Wetsuits and life vests are included, so all you need to pack is a swimsuit, towel, and a bit of reckless abandon as you crash beneath the surface.
Paddle boards at Wild Shore DelamereThe sauna and cold plungeThe RingoAqua Chimp
Daisy Jackson -
9th June 2023 
