Two girls from Manchester are going into Winter Love Island tonight

The Manc - 2nd February 2020

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Manchester’s free summer picnic is coming back to Oxford Road

Danny Jones

Manchester’s free ‘Summer in the City Picnic’ is returning to the Oxford Road Corridor later this year, promising plenty of live music and entertainment, family-friendly fun, outdoor activities and lots more.

Coming back to Circle Square for the second time, the now annual and completely free city centre festival will set up for its sophomore edition right on Symphony Park.

Surrounded by numerous local businesses located within the thriving Bruntwood SciTech and Vita Group neighbourhood, this mini-district is once again set to draw in crowds from all over Manchester.

With that in mind, get your coolers, picnic baskets and blankets ready: it’s time for some alfresco fanfare.

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A post shared by Circle Square Manchester (@circlesquaremcr)

Kicking off next month for one day only, Circle Square‘s ‘Summer in the City Picnic’ 2.0 will get underway pretty much from the outset, with the organisers promising a full day of festivities.

Visitors can look forward to an even more jam-packed schedule than last year, with creative workshops and interactive experiences, DJs right through to the evening, alongside roaming steel drum performances and even silent disco adventures, just to name a few.

Other events include: sip and paint sessions, pop-up mini golf and basketball shoot-outs; ‘foot pool’, a seasonal bouquet bar, as well as a dedicated picnic space for dogs, complete with bespoke pup portraits. Adorable.

2025 saw plenty of furry friends steal the show and become local celebrities for the day, and we’re sure ’26 will be no different.

We can’t wait.

Credit: **Jody Hartley Photography** (supplied)

The long picnic tables will once again take centre stage, creating a relaxed space for families and friends to come together over great food from Circle Square’s wide mix of indie restaurants and cafes, such as Gooey, Onda, Hello Oriental, Half Dozen Other, Saffa Soul, North Bar, Monkey Trio and more.

Punters are, obviously, to bring along their own picnic bits, packed lunches and favourite scran, but it’s nice to have the option of treating yourself to stuff on-site.

Better still, Circle Square’s proximity not only to Oxford Road train station, but the St Peter’s Square tram stop and various bus routes (even Piccadilly isn’t really that far) means that this is super accessible for anyone interested – not to mention that it’s completely free and open to all members of the public.

Taking place on Saturday, 8 August, we hope to see you there and hopefully with the sun shining.

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Featured Images — Publicity pictures/Jody Hartley (supplied via SH Comms)

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UK’s most popular commuter towns named and four are in Greater Manchester

Emily Sergeant

The UK’s most popular commuter towns have been named, and four of them are here in Greater Manchester.

Where are the most popular commuter towns in the UK right now?

Well, new data collated based on the number of people enquiring about available properties on Rightmove has revealed the locations where buyer demand is highest, and with Manchester being one of the largest cities in the country, of course there’s some Greater Manchester towns on the list.

Rightmove says that choosing the best commuter town requires buyers to balance a number of factors – including property prices, travel times, and local lifestyle

To narrow it down, the property platform has chosen to focus on commuter towns within a 45-minute rail journey to the target city, and with at least 20,000 people living there.

For Manchester, it’s Stockport that’s taken the title as the city’s most popular commuter town, as amazinly, it generated 70% more enquiries per listing than Manchester itself.

New build houses — The UK’s most popular commuter towns have been named / Credit: James Feaver (via Unsplash) | Manchester City Council

The UK’s most popular commuter towns have been named / Credit: James Feaver (via Unsplash) | Manchester City Council

Being just an eight-minute journey from Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport has an average property price of £308,299.

Elsewhere in Greater Manchester, the picturesque Stockport town of Marple takes second spot on the list, while the Tameside town of Stalybridge comes in third place, and Rochdale also features in the top five, alongside Warrington – which is just outside of our region’s borders, but is only a short 22-minute train journey into the city centre.

Transport options is obviously one of the most important factors in what makes a town a so-called ‘commuter town’.

Stockport benefits from around six fast trains per hour, while Stalybridge and Rochdale offer four per hour. Marple is less frequent at two per hour but still attracts strong interest, likely due to its lifestyle appeal and stunning setting on the edge of the Peak District.

Price growth has been strong across most of the Manchester commuter towns, with Stalybridge (+6.1%) and Rochdale (+5.8%) seeing notable increases year-on-year.

However, average prices for four out of the five commuter locations on the list were higher than the average Manchester property price (£261,891), suggesting that lifestyle factors were a stronger draw for Manchester’s surrounding towns.

Featured Image – Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)