Mary Ellen McTague’s The Creameries has teamed up with Platt Fields Market Garden to host an autumnal food and wine fair down on their allotment in south Manchester.
Bringing together some of Manchester’s best-loved restaurants, as well as local wine importers, brewers and growers for one day only, the fair will celebrate locally-grown, seasonal produce at its finest – with plenty of time to cook, eat, drink and chat throughout the day.
With food being cooked from The Creameries, Isca Wines, Erst and Things Palace, there’ll be plenty of delicious hot and cool dishes to sample.
As for drinks, local importers Under The Bonnet Wines will be in attendance with a selection of wines from small growers in Europe, Chile and the UK.
The Market Garden has become a bit of a hub for foodies, and the Autumn Fair is definitely one for your list – bringing down some esteemed Manchester restauranteurs / Image: Platt Fields Market Gardens
Further drinks on the day will come from Indigo Wines, The Creameries team and Where The Light Gets In, with the latter sending down general manager James Galton to whip up some top tier cocktails for those in attendance.
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And on top of all that, there’ll also be a host of DIY workshops and tastings taking place throughout the day plus DJ sets from top vinyl-selector Living Room Dance Club and underground Manchester crew That Amazing Thing.
For those that don’t know, Platt FIeld Market Garden is a community market garden housed in an old, disused bowling green. The space has been given new life by growers, transformed into a community garden with fresh produce now on sale every Saturday morning.
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Local importers Under The Bonnet Wines will be in attendance with a selection of wines from small growers in Europe, Chile and the UK / Image: Under The Bonnet Wines
Created by Manchester Urban Diggers, who work to address food poverty in the city, it’s both practical and pleasurable – offering a calm space to escape the madness of city life and reconnect with nature, as well as being somewhere where you can physically put crops in the ground.
The garden has also become really popular with local foodies, who tend to queue up not just for the boxes of fresh vegetables but also for the chance to get other locallcy-made bits, including occasional preserves from Isca wines and hot sauces from Lorcan Kan’s Things Palace.
Tickets for the autumnal fair are on sale now, priced at £40 a head for the full day or £25 for a half. These include either ten or five pounds worth of tokens to exchange for food, drink and workshops at the fair – so you’re covered for the whole day pretty much.
Additional tokens will also be available to purchase on site should you wish to top up.
The fair will help raise funds for MUD and Eat Well MCR, both of whom work to eradicate food poverty in Manchester. There is a £5 discount for anyone who’s unwaged which can be applied using the code UNWAGED at the check out.
Taking place from 11 am – 7 pm on Monday, 4 October 2021, there will be some rain cover on the green (the main area) and in the Froghouse where the workshops will be running. This is still Manchester after all.
A music festival is coming to a Manchester skate park
Danny Jones
With the sun starting to shine more consistently and the music festival season well and truly on its way, we’ll admit we weren’t expecting to see an event taking place on a Manchester skate park, of all places.
Projekts Skatepark, the long-standing skating hub and cultural hotspot located under Macunian Way, is set to host the fourth edition of the unapologetically named ‘Metlchester’.
Starting out life as little more than a small Oldham Street takeover, the city centre festival is returning for this year, bringing plenty of alternative music, skate vibes, bevs and more.
You can see the lineup confirmed so far down below:
The 2025 edition of the festival, a.k.a. ‘Metlchester Vol. 4’, is taking place later this month.
Projekts has been catering to local boarders for the past two decades, and along with their on-site cafe and bar, the space has been put to use for several other special events – case and point, Meltchester Festival, which first started back in 2022.
Bringing a healthy dose of garage rock, post-punk and psych music to NQ from the outset, now it’s expanded, you can expect even more variety when it comes to genre this time around, as well as a well-stocked in-house bar and street food stalls.
Oh yeah, and of course there’ll be the usual merch and skate shop for you to browse.
As for the aforementioned tunes, while last year’s festival was headlined by Night Beats and Frankie & The Witch Fingers, topping the bill this year are Snapped Ankles, along with a mix of grassroots artists, including local duo, Slap Rash, who recently featured as one of our Manc artists of the month for April.
Projekts opened back in 2004Slap RashCredit: Supplied
Set in collaboration with Sour Grapes Records, an equally longstanding regional promoter with hundreds of successful events to their name, they make up part of the Greater Manchester Music Commission.
Serving up an exciting springtime event full of energy, from the skate culture to the performances themselves, this is the perfect appetiser ahead of a busy summer schedule as we approach festival season.
They also happen to be the event coordinators for local music venue Big Hands, where not only are current Sicilian traders Rizzo’s are based (also set to join the festival for the day) but where this year’s after party will be held, which is free for ticket holders, by the way.
Set to kick off from 12 noon on 17 May, with a pro skater session running until 2pm before the tunage, Metlchester sounds like a belter.
Featured Images — quantum bunny (via Flickr)/Supplied
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Greater Manchester’s heritage railway is hosting a new vintage festival this late May bank holiday weekend
Emily Sergeant
Greater Manchester’s iconic heritage railway is taking a step back in time with its brand new vintage festival later this month.
After delighting families throughout the region with countless successful events over the past couple of years, the Greater Manchester public is now being invited down to East Lancashire Railway (ELR) this late May bank holiday for an unforgettable weekend of ‘soulful tunes’ and ‘timeless classics’ – with music, food, events, and costumes inspired by the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s.
The brand-new Vintage Vibesevents is shaping up to be even bigger and better than ever before, all to celebrate the best of years gone by.
Along with previously confirmed headliners including The Real Thing, The Barron Soul DJ, Northern Soul Train, and Sixties Mania, seven new acts are hitting the stages at Bury Bolton Street, Rawtenstall, Ramsbottom, and Heywood Stations along the ELR route.
Local radio personality, David Dockerty, will serve as MC for both days of the event on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 May.
Acoustic specialists The Washboard Resonators, Motown marvel Jackie Marie, disco band Groovemental, and vocal trio Christopher and The Robins are just some of the music acts to perform across the two-day festival, while tribute act Masters of the Scene will round off the weekend in perfect sing-along fashion belting out all your favourite ABBA hits.
The fun doesn’t stop at the main stage either, as vintage entertainer Lilli Moore is set to perform at Heywood Station all afternoon on both days of the event, as is 1940s singer and entertainer Lancashire Belle at Rawtenstall on 24 May and Ramsbottom on 25 May.
A new vintage festival is coming to Greater Manchester this late May bank holiday weekend / Credit: ELR | Wikimedia Commons
So Retro will be hosting an incredible vintage fair with themed memorabilia, clothing, and vinyl records for sale all weekend.
ELR is also taking those vintage vibes to the sky too, and that’s because the iconic Lancaster bomber will be performing a thrilling flypast on the Saturday to wow spectators with a touch of history and nostalgia.
Vintage Vibes is taking place across the late May bank holiday weekend from Saturday 24 and Saturday 25 May, and you can find out more and get tickets starting from £13 each on the ELR website here.
Georgina Pellant -
23rd September 2021 
