A huge gaming event is set to return to Manchester next month, with more than 160 consoles and hundreds of games to play.
The Power Up event will be back at the Science and Industry Museum for the first time in three years, taking ticket-holders on a journey through five decades of gaming.
Everything from retro arcade games to state-of-the-art virtual reality will be available to play at the hit event – and every ticket includes unlimited play all day.
Power Up will be taking place every weekend and school holiday from 18 June all the way through to December 2023.
Power Up will return to Manchester this summer. Credit: Science Museum Group
Consoles at the museum will include SNES, Wii, Mega Drive, Atari 2600, Playstation 5, N64, Xbox and more.
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Visitors will be able to take a trip down memory lane by playing retro classics like Pong and Pac-Man, rock out on Guitar Hero, and play the wildly popular Fortnite.
Power Up will allow people to follow the development of characters like Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog through the decades.
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Credit: Benjamin Ealovega and Science Museum Group
A new section for this year will celebrate Manchester’s gaming industry, from early success stories like Ocean Software and Software Creations to contemporary indie developers like Acid Nerve.
Young talent will be showcased too, with games made by winners and nominees from the Bafta Young Games Designers Awards, which are open to children and young people.
Mark Cutmore, head of commercial experiences at the Science Museum Group, said: “We are over the moon to welcome POWER UP back to the museum.
“It has always been a big hit with our visitors so we’re excited to be giving so much time to enjoy and keep returning to this experience during its longest run ever at the museum.
“We’re also really proud to be showcasing our city’s amazing contributions to the industry through the new Manchester Made section.
Credit: Science Museum Group
“POWER UP offers a fun space to enjoy past and present gaming technology, experience the latest developments and reminisce about old favourites. The gaming industry is a key component of Manchester’s creative, digital and tech industries and this interactive exhibition will help to inspire game designers and software engineers of the future.”
Tickets to Power Up include a full day of unlimited gaming, and are priced at £8 for adults, £7 for seniors, and £6 for children and concessions. There’s a £1 discount per ticket for families.
We Are Football Festival – Europe’s biggest World Cup fan park is opening in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
The largest World Cup fan park in all of Europe is set to open in Manchester this summer, in an ambitious project from 4TheFans, in partnership with Freight Island and Broadwick.
The We Are Football Festival will bring together 15,000 football fans in front of the biggest screens in the UK to cheer on England as they race for World Cup glory.
The enormous fan park will open in June at Depot Mayfield, transforming the space into an unrivalled celebration of football.
Fans will be immersed in all the action thanks to a massive sound system, pyrotechnics, CO2 cannons, DJs, and entertainment around the games themselves, providing the closest thing you can get to a big game atmosphere.
The venue will be open for all late kick-offs and every moment of the World Cup too, with the potential for some games to run well into the early hours.
Fans can head to the rooftop or garden at Depot Mayfield for a 5pm kick-off in the sunshine, or enjoy late-night games in the warehouse.
We Are Football Festival by 4TheFansThe fan park will open at Depot MayfieldIt’s set to be Europe’s biggest World Cup fan zone
There’ll also be a dedicated Footy Fun Village, which will feature sponsor activations, games zones, and family-friendly areas, creating a safe space for fans of all ages to enjoy the tournament.
And 4TheFans and Freight Island will deliver hand-picked and exclusive bar and food traders from around the world.
We Are Football Festival will welcome a special 4TheFans host plus Sky Sports presenters, and will even have genuine England football legends for quality match analysis at each screening.
Since launching, 4TheFans has welcomed hundreds of thousands of fans, and camera crews from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News, Sky Sports, England TV, and Match of the Day, to fan parks across the UK.
It’s now chosen Depot Mayfield for its World Cup fan park, where they can fill the huge space at Freight Island first before scaling into the rest of the Depot as the fan community grows and the Three Lions march on.
4TheFans is the UK’s original and biggest fan park brand, and it’s working with Freight Island and Broadwick to deliver this game-changing We Are Football Festival – the biggest and best fan park in Europe.
5,000 early bird tickets are available from just £4.50 per person and are on sale HERE.
4TheFans presents We Are Football Festival will run at Depot Mayfield from 11 June until 19 July 2026.
General admission tickets include
4TheFans interactive show with on-stage banter from a Sky Sports presenter
Football legend in attendance
Guaranteed entry to the event
The most enormous anti-glare screens in the UK and a monster sound system
Special effects, lighting, DJ sets and music from doors till close
Access to Footy Fun Village with games, activations and family areas
Food from around the world and an exclusive bar traders
VIP table tickets include
VIP table section with the best view of the giant screens and the event
Meet and greet with a football legend
4TheFans interactive show with on-stage banter from a Sky Sports presenter
Guaranteed entry to the event
The most enormous anti-glare screens in the UK and a monster sound system
Special effects, lighting, DJ sets and music from doors till close
Access to Footy Fun Village with games, activations and family areas
Food from around the world and an exclusive bar traders
‘A new kind of night out’ – new competitive social games venue opens in Manchester city centre
Emily Sergeant
A brand-new competitive social games venue is opening in Manchester city centre this week, bringing a completely original format to the city’s nightlife scene.
Gameface has made itself at home inside Manchester‘s Printworks complex.
Built around 10 games designed and developed from scratch, Gameface turns a standard night out into a fast-paced, shared experience.
The 5,400 sq ft venue has capacity for 120 players and has been created by CONDUCTR, the creative innovation studio powered by technology, meaning every game has been built in-house – with bespoke mechanics and technology developed specifically for the experience.
Having been in development for over a year now, and becoming the first venue for the brand – with further expansion planned in the future – Gameface joins an already-competitive socialising scene at Printworks, alongside venues like Boom Battle Bar, Tenpin, and Treetop Golf.
However, unlike existing concepts, all games at Gameface are completely original and do not exist anywhere else.
So, how does it work then? Well, groups move between games in a 60-minute session, competing for points across physical, reactive, and problem-solving challenges, before heading straight to the bar.
Rather than putting technology front and centre, Gameface uses it to ‘quietly power’ the experience.
Score tracking, reactive gameplay, and dynamic challenges all sit behind the scenes, designed to make each game feel intuitive, fast and competitive from the first round.
New competitive social games venue Gameface opens in Manchester city centre / Credit: Supplied
There are no long instructions or complicated rules. Players arrive, tap in, and start competing within seconds, so the result is apparently something ‘closer to a house party than a traditional activity venue’.
“It’s a night out where you’re actually doing something,” explained Leanne Casey, who is the General Manager at Gameface. “You’re moving, competing, laughing, and it gets competitive almost instantly. People care about the score quicker than they expect.”
Daisy Jackson -
25th May 2022 
