The spooky season is finally here, and Halloween in the City is returning to Manchester this weekend to celebrate.
With so much happening over the two-day festival as part of the annual Halloween in the City celebrations – which are organised by CityCo and Manchester Business Improvement Distict (BID) – visitors to the city centre this weekend are being encouraged to “dress up, join in, and get gruesome” to look the part.
It won’t be something you see every day, but everything from ghastly ghouls, to wicked witches, curious cats, and more will all be welcome in Manchester city centre this Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 October.
The more people in spooky fancy dress, the better.
While the Halloween in the City celebrations will be largely taking place over this weekend, if you’ve got a keen eye, then you may have already noticed that giant inflatable monsters with hanging tentacles, fanged teeth, and bloodshot eyes have been starting to take over the rooftops of Manchester this week.
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Dotted at eleven different locations across the city centre, you’ll be able to go on adventure to discover them at places like KAMPUS, Selfridges, the Manchester Arndale, Great Northern Warehouse, Printworks and The Royal Exchange Manchester, Spinningfields, and at the ‘spooktacular’ Cathedral Gardens outdoor ice rink.
And then on Halloween weekend itself, there’ll be even more monsters set to pop up on the ground, so keep your eyes peeled around Exchange Square.
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The monsters are just the tip of the iceberg of events happening at Halloween in the City this weekend though – think a welcome procession of roaming monsters, a monster carnival, top monster bands, monster DJs, a monstrous photo trail across the city
Here’s a round-up of everything you can get involved with.
Credit: CityCo / Manchester BIDCredit: CityCo / Manchester BID
A ‘monsters welcome’ procession
Walk The Plank, who also create the annual Manchester Day parade, are putting on a crazy procession of monster puppets, stilt walkers and a five-piece band across the Halloween weekend – and everyone is invited.
Visit the home of Manchester’s mad-for-it scientist, Dr. Mancenstein, encountering dragons, giant marauding crows, Mr Arsenic the castle butler and eerie groundskeepers along the way whilst dodging the man-eating plants.
Free to attend, her garden and cemetery is also home to a menagerie of creepy characters.
Get up close and personal with giant monster Scary Gary at this year’s Monster Lab, located in Exchange Square. You can also make your own slime at the Monster Slime School and create your own mini monsters to take home.
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Dr Mancenstein’s radioactive lab assistant will be on hand to help with all your weird and wonderful experiments.
Billed as a ‘family-friendly freakshow’, New Cathedral street will be transformed for spooky season with roaming circus monsters, sideshow stalls, a kids’ carousel and a traditional helter-skelter.
You can also get up close and personal with the inflatable monster, Creepy Annie.
A trail of spooky photo opportunities across the city
Discover eight different spooky backdrops scattered across the city, ranging from a ‘monster invasion’ Manchester skyline, to depictions of the Grimm Reaper, aliens, zombies, the marshmallow man, dragons and creepy castle gates.
There will also be backdrops featuring Cbeebies and CBBC characters – perfect for the little ones.
Known as ‘The Keeper’s Nests’ these giant magpie puppets draw inspiration from the rhyme “One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl and four for a boy, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told…”.
The pair will stalk the streets at a height, looking down from their rickety nests in search of secrets.
DJ Ghostman isn’t the first selector to hide his identity, but he might be the first to do so with a bed sheet. Find him playing a host of Halloween hits and monster bops from the Monster DJ Truck on Market Street across Halloween weekend.
Don’t forget to follow the fun over on Halloween in the City’s socials too – Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Featured Image – CityCo / Manchester BID
What's On
AJ Tracey is playing a VERY intimate gig in Manchester next month
Thomas Melia
London rapper and respected grime artist AJ Tracey is ‘live and direct’ once again, announcing a whole host of UK dates, one of which is a rather intimate gig right here in Manchester.
It’s official: one of UK rap’s leading gents is getting back on the road and he’s showing a ‘Little More Love’ to lots of cities, including Manchester.
In a post on the UK star’s socials, AJ Tracey trades his music persona for that of a sports pundit as he announces the dates for his upcoming tour while impersonating an F1 commentator.
Anyone looking to attend Tracey’s ‘Not Even A Tour’ can catch the star up and down the country on his over 20-date tour with a stop in Manchester as soon as this month.
The rapper has reached phenomenal heights since dropping the unforgettable ‘Ladbroke Grove’ in 2019 and is heading out across the nation to make sure everyone knows about it.
Get ready to spit bars left and right as this rapper’s discography is stacked with serious tunes like ‘Dinner Guest’, ‘West Ten’, ‘Thiago Silva’ and more.
More recently, he collaborated with Walsall’s finest Jorja Smith for a flirty garage beat also known as ‘Crush’ with the video being the two artists talking it out in a good old fashioned caff.
The latest collaboration with Smith marks the start of a new era for Mr. Live and direct as it fell in line with the announcement of his third studio album.
Titled Don’t Die Before You’re Dead, we’re sure he’ll be “building a vibe” wherever he goes and probably previewing a few exclusive tracks from his upcoming project too.
This gig may come as quite a surprise for any hardcore fans of the ‘Ladbroke Grove’ star as the venue in which he’s performing is definitely intimate only, holding just over 250 guests.
This rap giant is bringing his unbelievable beats to none other than the legendary small-cap city centre live music venue, The Deaf Institute, at the end of this month.
It’s safe to say you won’t get many more chances, if any, to see him in such a tight-knit space again.
AJ Tracey is bringing ‘Not Even A Tour’ to Deaf Institute in Manchester on 30 April, with tickets on sale Friday 4 April from 12 noon.
Wet Leg are BACK and coming to Manchester very soon
Danny Jones
One of the best up-and-coming indie bands around is returning after what feels like forever, but it’s actually only been a few years; either way, Wet Leg are back and coming to Manchester.
Their self-titled debut dropped back in 2022 and was met with an overwhelming reaction, picking up three Grammy Awards at a BRIT for Best British Group at the first time of asking.
It did slap, to be fair.
More importantly, fast forward three years and they’re back with a release date for their sophomore record, moisturizer, a brand new single by the name of ‘catch these fists’, as well as a small handful of new tour dates – including a gig at a brilliant Manchester music venue, of course.
uk pre-orders of moisturizer from the official wet leg store before 3pm bst tuesday 8th april will get early access to pre-sale tickets for uk headline live dates. pic.twitter.com/KUvazSX6NY
The Isle of Wight-founded five-piece, fronted by charismatic duo Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers, will be heading out on a couple dozen live shows across Europe and the festival season circuit, as well as a one-off gig (for now) in the US at The River in LA.
However, just five of those are domestic headline dates, with the gang preparing to delight crowds in London, Birmingham and our friends over in Leeds.
Guess we’ll just have to go to both.
Here in Manchester, Wet Leg will be playing the cult favourite venue, O2 Victoria Warehouse, which just wrapped up this year’s BBC Radio 6 Music Festival programme.
As for the new album, moisturizer is due to release on 11 July, and from the small teaser we’ve been given courtesy of their new single, it sounds like there’s been some experimentation; the guitars and attitude are being dialled up even further, and they’re just as confident as ever.
An absolute jam, as expected.
Best of all, you don’t have to wait long to see them live again, as they’ll be heading out across the country just next month and are scheduled to arrive in Old Trafford on Thursday, 29 May.
Tickets for the Manchester gig and all other Wet Leg UK tour this May will be available for early access to those who pre-order the album online from 10 am local time on Wednesday, 9 April.
General sale goes live at the same time on Friday, 11 April. You can get ready to grab yours HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
26th October 2021 
