TalkTalk is teaming up with Heart to bring a “spooktacular” pop-up haunted to Manchester this weekend.
The free-to-attend event – which is being hosted by the connectivity provider, in collaboration with the UK’s biggest commercial radio brand – is coming to the Trafford Centre for one day only on Saturday 30 October from 12pm to 8pm.
The haunted house will feature a trio of escape rooms.
Those who fancy popping down to the event will be challenged on their speedy reactive skills, their ability to find the reliable route, and their detective talents to find hidden devices – and if you manage to complete all the tasks in time, you and your team will walk away with a TalkTalk goodie bag.
A Heart presenter will be playing live at the event, as well as hosting a fun pop-up selfie station where guests will be able to take a spooky selfie and share it on social using the hashtag #PoweredByFutureFibre to enter a prize draw and be in with a chance of winning some pretty impressive prizes.
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Some of the prizes up for grabs include a Samsung Galaxy Tab 32GB Tablet, Ring Video Doorbell, Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Wireless Earbuds, Amazon Echo Show 8 Smart Display, or a Nintendo Switch.
TalkTalk is teaming up with Heart to bring a “spooktacular” pop-up event to Manchester this weekend. / Credit: TalkTalk x Heart
The event comes as TalkTalk celebrates the launch of Future Fibre in Manchester – which uses the UK’s latest fibre technology to bring 100% full fibre directly into the home.
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If you’re unfamiliar with what Future Fibre is, it’s 45 x faster and 5 x more-reliable than standard broadband, which, according to TalkTalk, means it can “effortlessly handle” all household devices’ streaming, gaming, and video-calling at once.
Aiming to show the many benefits of Future Fibre, the pop-up event will feature three separate escape rooms – the ‘Speed’ room, where visitors will play a Batak-style light reaction game, the ‘Concurrency’ room which challenges people to find 75 hidden golden coins, and finally the ‘Reliability’ room, where one team member will be blindfolded and verbally led by their group through the most reliable route.
For the final task, challengers will need to watch out for rotten pumpkins, a broken wheelbarrow, the sinking ground, and the scary pumpkin man.
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Those who fancy popping down to the event will be challenged on their speedy reactive skills, their ability to find the reliable route, and more / Credit: TalkTalk x Heart
Speaking ahead of the pop-up’s arrival on Saturday, Becki Smith – General Manager of Ultrafast at TalkTalk – said: “”We’re excited to bring this event to the Trafford Centre to celebrate half term week, and the launch of Future Fibre in the city.
“Guests to the event will be able to work together to make it through our three escape rooms whilst experiencing all the benefits of Future Fibre.”
You can find out more about TalkTalk’s Future Fibre plans and whether it’s available on your street here.
Featured Image – TalkTalk x Heart
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Free roses are being handed out at a Manchester train station this Valentine’s Day
Danny Jones
In an effort to spread the love this Valentine’s Day, free roses are being hands out to commuters at a Manchester train station this week.
Add that to the ever-growing list of why we absolutely adore this place.
Not everyone is coupled up come the most mush day of the year, nor do they need to be – self-love, Galentine’s and even just a whoelsome pint or two with the boys – but it’s nice to see Greater Mancs going out of their way to make things nicer for each other.
In our eyes, in a relationship or otherwise, this day is just about sharing the love with everyone and if you happen to arriving or leaving Manchester (excuse me, why would you ever?) from Victoria station this Friday, you could be in for a lovely little surprise.
The brains behind the touching little gesture is the city’s legendary live music and entertainment space, AO Arena.
Although many arrive at the venue via the Trinity Way Tunnel on the other side of Arena, the AO is already directly attached to Victoria by a simply set of stairs, meaning you can arrive in the city centre via train or tram and arrive directly at your destination.
It’s also one of the busiest stations in the North West, so for commuters looking to start the day with a little love, whether that be to treat their significant other, brighten a colleague’s day or just make themselves feel good, these roses are set to be handed out on Valentine’s Day morning.
100 of the most romantic flowers will be up for grabs from 8am at Manchester Victoria Station on a first-come, first served basis, naturally, Simple as that – but it gets better…
There is also an exciting chance to win a handful of surprises, including free tickets to a show at the arena, which will be given away with a select few lucky roses.
This year marks an extra special milestone for the AO Arena, as they are celebrating thirty years of spreading joy in the city as Manchester’s longest standing large music venue.
With that in mind and tying together the arena’s history and love for entertainment, each rose will be individually wrapped in a special 30th birthday edition print.
This design features the names of all artists and acts who have performed there over the last three decades; consider it just a small token of AO‘s love and affection for 0161, wrapped in nostalgia.
Happy Valentine’s Day, Manchester – you’ll always be ours x
You Are Not Alone Festival deliver gutting delay news
Danny Jones
You Are Not Alone Festival has reluctantly had to inform Greater Manchester music fans that this year’s comeback event has sadly been delayed.
After debuting back in 2019 and hosting just their second-ever festival after lockdown, You Are Not Alone, or simply YANA Fest, was hoping to get back on track following another hiatus.
Having relocated from Manchester city centre to Stockport for their return festival this spring, where founder Benji Taylor first drummed up the idea and has gone on to build a strong local reputation thanks to the success of Bask, it’s an exciting prospect for the borough’s growing arts and cultural scene.
However, those hoping to go along to the event will have to wait a little longer as Taylor and his team have announced that You Are Not Alone 2025 has been officially delayed.
Sharing the unfortunate update on social media this week, they explained that having “lost four stages, of fairly big capacities”, they have been left with no choice but to postpone the event until further notice.
This comes after Blackbird Brewhouse and Kitchen, Syndikat, AMP – formerly Remedy Bar and then Dr Feelgood (a sister site of the short-lived Glass Spider, both of which closed) – joined the ever-growing list of Manc hospitality and venue casualties.
Syndikat is currently set to be transformed into a new music-forward space but some uncertainty around the project remains, meaning it could not be guaranteed as a venue.
All told this means that YANA Fest has suddenly found itself without four of its key stages; they go on to reassure that they are continuing to search for replacement spots in the area to stand in their place but, for the time being, the whole thing is on hold.
With a great selection of acts and all in aid of a fantastic cause, with proceeds going directly to mental health charity Mind, we sincerely hope it’s rescheduled sooner rather than later.
Dr. Dr.Denver County CouncilTwo fantastic local acts we’re buzzing to see live again (Credit: Press Images)
Signing off the statement, they continue: “Working hard to get this resolved quickly and to keep the lineup in place, and hopefully you can all do the new date once confirmed. Original tickets will remain valid. Lots of love and thanks for understanding. YANA x”
It’s unclear when exactly we can expect it to get back on track or whether Stockport will remain the home base for the festival given the struggle for suitable local venues but we’ll be keeping our fingers firmly crossed.
For now, anyone needing support during these difficult times, please reach out to services like Mind, Samaritans on 116 123; contact the NHS via the 101 service and in the event of any emergency, please dial 999 immediately.
Emily Sergeant -
26th October 2021 
