Award-winning illuminations event Lightopia is returning to Manchester with a new Christmas Fantasy adventure at Heaton Park.
Featuring an illuminated trail with multi-sensory interactive lights, lanterns and installations, Lightopia is back for its third successive year in Manchester in just a couple of months time, after a successful run in 2020. The popular event will bring a “fantasy festive world for family and friends filled with mythical creatures”.
The Grade I-listed Heaton Hall will play host to a Christmas Spectacular, with a 9ft bauble-inspired Christmas tree and an immersive stand-alone giant bauble for visitors to walk inside of.
Lightopia 2021 will also feature a fantastical Magic Circus display, complete with illusional installations and interactive entertainment as clowns, animals and magicians take charge of the night.
A giant Earth Flower will also be on display, which will be surrounded by 10 musical drums and powering a Field of Love with 50,000 hearts filling the floor.
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The Grade I-listed Heaton Hall will play host to Lightopia’s Christmas Spectacular from this November / Credit: Lightopia
A Time Travel zone will contain holographic time portals and a colourful time tunnel complete with digital interactions, whilst an enchanted Fantasy Forest will introduce visitors to mythical creatures hidden in the woodland, including a nine tailed fox and unicorns.
Lightopia 2021 will also be home Dragon’s Land featuring huge 40m dragons and fabled fairies; Candy Land – a sweet-inspired illuminated dreamland; Fantasy Bees – where iconic insects are brought to life in a fantasy world; and a Wonders of the World display with giant mirrored, glistening crystals and gems.
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There will also be a Lakeside Water Show – a new fantasy production created especially for 2021.
Speaking ahead of the festival’s return to Heaton Park, Ian Xiang – Creative Director of Lightopia – said: “We are excited to bring a brand new concept to Manchester this winter, a fantasy world that has never been seen before. Lightopia 2021 will be a dream world adventure for families and friends to escape to this Christmas.
“We want our guests to become part of this new fantasy Lightopia experience, as they interact and engage with the luminescent sculptures that trail through Heaton Park.”
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Ava Moradi – Creative Designer for Lightopia – added: “This year, Lightopia will bring new artistic illuminated displays with unique fantasy themed installations and light shows.
“My main focus as an artist is for this immersive light experience to bring happiness and joy; making this festive day out a go-to place for friends and family to celebrate together through the magical trail.”
Lightopia will be open to the public from Thursday 18 November – Monday 3 January.
The event is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, except during school holidays, and it will also close on Christmas Day.
Opening times are between 5pm to 10pm, and last entry is 8:30pm daily.
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For those looking to plan ahead with friends and family this Christmas, you can sign-up for a 15% discount on your tickets via the Lightopia website.
Lightopia is promising a ‘state-of-the-art’ lakeside water show for 2021 / Credit: Lightopia
Advance tickets are priced at £20 for adults (or £22 on the day), £13 for children (or £15 on the day), and £60 for families of two adults and two children (£68 on the day). Children under three can go free.
Essential carers of disabled visitors can attend for free, the disabled visitor pays the normal admission fee.
Manchester bar announces huge giveaway of margaritas to celebrate first birthday
Daisy Jackson
A cocktail and shuffleboard bar in Manchester city centre is throwing a weekend-long party to celebrate its first birthday, and there are free cocktails up for grabs.
Electric Shuffle is kindly offering to give all of us presents for its birthday, with an epic free margarita giveaway.
That’s alongside an almighty party that includes resident DJs, live music performances, giveaways, exclusive offers, a cracking happy hour and a free photobooth.
The Deansgate activity bar, which has 15 interactive high-tech shuffleboards to play, each one loaded with different game modes, is celebrating one year in the city centre between Friday 20 and Sunday 22 June.
They’re throwing a three-day-long celebration, kicking off at 5pm on Friday with a giveaway of margaritas for the first 250 guests through the doors.
Then there’ll be an Electric Shuffle birthday prize game, where each slide of the puck could unlock prizes like bar tabs, brunch tickets, branded merch, cocktails, pizzas and more.
Singer-songwriter Luke McColl will be playing live during the evening, and you’ll be able to dive into a free photobooth all evening.
Electric Shuffle ManchesterFood and drink at the premium gaming barElectric Shuffle Manchester turns one
Moving on to Saturday’s celebrations – expect happy hour deals all day long, like £4 pins and £7 Sarti Spritzes, complimentary shuffleboard hire (you need to pre-book HERE), a special late brunch session between 5pm and 7pm, and more prize giveaways.
This part of the birthday party will be soundtracked by resident DJs and a live set from Elle Graham.
And if you thought that was the end of the party, you’re mistaken.
On Sunday, Electric Shuffle will host free shuffleboard all day long.
All summer, there’ll be a Margs and Margs deal, where you can get two margarita cocktails and a margarita pizza for just £25.
Electric Shuffle’s first birthday celebrations take place between 20 and 22 June.
Ashton town centre is hosting one of Greater Manchester’s ‘wildest’ street parties this summer
Emily Sergeant
One of the ‘wildest’ street parties is arriving in a popular Greater Manchester town centre this summer.
From giant Star Wars machines to a full-scale wrestling ring, life-sized dinosaurs roaming around, and everything in between, a bold new community celebration hits Market Avenue in Ashton-under-Lyne early next month… and as you can tell, there’ll be something for visitors of all ages to get involved with on the day.
This is Street Life – a brand new one-day community festival taking over the Tameside town.
Free to attend and open to all ages, event organisers are promising that it’ll be an ‘explosion’ of creativity, culture, and big day-out energy, all to celebrate the very best of what Ashton has to offer.
It may sound like something out of a Comic Con, but it’s all happening in Greater Manchester, and at the centre of the spectacle is a rare appearance from a towering eight-metre Scout Walker, which is a jaw-dropping mechanical build direct from the Star Wars universe.
The build was previously exclusive to private exhibitions, but this is the first time it will be appearing at a community event free for all to see.
That’s only the beginning of all the action happening though, as some of the other things visitors can look forward to include a pop-up cinema screening family classics, a performance from Britain’s Got Talent finalist dance troupe of disco stormtroopers, Boogie Storm, live music and DJ sets from a wide range of genres, and so much more.
There’ll be free face painting, festive hair braiding, and temporary glitter tattoos for kids, as well as local businesses showcasing on market stalls, and loads of pop-up street food by local vendors.
“We want to give Ashton something to be proud of,” says the Street Life team.
“This is about creating joy, spotlighting local talent, and reminding people how fun and vibrant a town centre can be. There’s truly something for everyone.
“Following the huge success of a last-minute VE Day street party last month, which brought the community together in the most brilliant, unexpected way, we saw the opportunity to scale it up, dream bigger, and create something beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.”
Emily Sergeant -
7th September 2021 
