Manchester will mark Armed Forces Day this weekend with a family fun day in the city centre.
St Peter’s Square will be a hive of activity to honour members of the Armed Forces and veterans of all ages.
Members of the public are invited to come along on Saturday 25 June and pay thanks through a series of events.
The formal celebrations will begin with a ceremonial march-past through the square at 11.30am, accompanied by The Lancashire Artillery Band, who will perform throughout the day.
The Armed Forces flag was raised above the Central Library earlier this week. Credit: Manchester City Council
Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Donna Ludford and Carl Austin Behan OBE representing the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater Manchester will be in attendance.
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Later in the day, there’ll be displays of current and historical military kits from The Veterans Military Museum, which members of the public can get hands-on with.
Performances from local talent including The Silhouette Band and Michele Dignan will take place throughout the day.
The Armed Forces flag has already been raised on top of Central Library this week, in a ceremony attended by representatives from the Army, Royal Navy and RAF.
Lord Mayor Councillor Donna Ludford said: “Armed Forces Day is a very important day; it allows the city to recognise all the sacrifices the Armed Forces have made and continue to make for our country.
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“It is also our chance to make sure all those who serve know just how much respect we have for them, and how grateful we are for their service, dedication and work to keep us all safe.”
The North West’s most infamous horror attraction Scare City is becoming an immersive theatre show
Emily Sergeant
One of the North West’s most infamous annual horror attractions is being turned into an immersive theatre show.
Scare City is the spine-chilling immersive horror experience that takes over the abandoned Camelot Theme Park even spooky season, becoming one of the region’s most-popular Halloween events along the way – with tens of thousands having visited over the last five years.
But this time, there’ll be no trails and no abandoned theme parks – just pure, live horror.
That’s because, this spring, the creators will drag audiences into a new kind of nightmare with the arrival of the Scare City Experience Live, bringing out of the Camelot grounds and into an ‘inescapable’ stage production.
Built from the twisted world of the original Scare City, the production will resurrect fan-favourite zones, characters, and signature scares, but ‘reimagine’ them for the stage with a relentless descent into fear, soaked in atmosphere and dread.
This time, there is no darkness to hide in, no escape route, no safe distance, and no way to look away as the nightmare unfolds in real-time and audiences watch the action play out inches away from their faces, with ‘disturbing’ imagery and a suffocating tension.
Scare City is returning as an immersive horror theatre show this spring / Credit: Supplied
Designed to push the boundaries of live horror, Scare City Experience Live will combine theatrical storytelling, live performers, sound, lighting, and ‘unsettling’ visuals to create an unforgettable and relentless experience with each performance playing the audience at the heart of the action, where the fear comes to them.
The production will offer both long-time Scare City fans and first-time visitors a new way to experience the brand’s dark universe.
Scare City Experience Live will be taking over the Liverpool Olympia between 22-25 May and 28-30 May 2026, and tickets are officially on sale now from £38 per person.
Featured Image – Jason Roberts Photography (Supplied)
What's On
Interview | Chatting with the Manchester-based visual artist for the 2026 BRIT Awards
Danny Jones
BRITs Week 2026 is well and truly underway, and with the annual awards ceremony set to finally land in Manchester this week – the debut being just one of at least two years of the event in our part of the country – the city is teeming with art, music, colour and so much energy.
One of those people responsible for all that buzz is locally-based painter, Alex Giles, who has been chosen to provide key visual material for this year’s BRIT Awards at Co-op Live.
From creating some of the first-ever digital adaptations of his work to preparing himself for seeing a glorious physical re-creation in the form of a VERY big sculpture.
With the partnered War Child charity gigs now well underway across the UK, and people already planning their days before arrival at the arena, we spoke to Alex about what has been nothing short of a whirlwind few months for him.
Straight off the bat, how did the sort of project come around?
So I was working on an installation project in Ibiza for a private client, and you know, there’s no sort of union for artists, so we have to sort of create our own contacts and our own bonds.
I feel very grateful to have a lovely network of people like that, mainly through Instagram. Anyway, I was chatting to someone that I’ve become good pals with, an artist called Matt Dosa, who actually did the artwork in a similar context a couple of years ago.
Essentially, they asked if I could put together a sort of deck of my work and some initial ideas, and then out of the blue, I got the call back saying, “Yeah, we’d love you to jump on board and produce something for us.” It all happened really quickly and unexpectedly.
What a rush that must have been!What’s it like be wrapped up in the BRITs buzz since?
Yeah, but that’s often the way with artistic opportunities: something comes from nowhere. The initial race was to get the design sorted, so that was where all of the focus went to start with – which is a fairly familiar world for me – but this week it’s got even more surreal.
You know, I can immerse myself in a task and think about just that alone, but now it’s got to this stage, I’ve got this continuous low-level kind of… Well, I don’t know whether it’s anxiety, excitement, or just a bit of butterflies, but there’s definitely something going on, haha.
One of the main things I’m really excited about is just seeing my work displayed in so many different ways that I wouldn’t normally do; I’m a two-dimensional artist, I make paintings, so seeing it come to life in 3D, graphic packages and in various digital formats is really exciting.
Yeah, so for those yet to see any of it, what exactly can you tell us about the project and how it’s going to take shape in different forms?
The idea was that Universal Music Group [UMG] wanted to ask an artist to create something that is their visual presence throughout Manchester for the BRITs.
So it needed to be something that was instantly recognisable, something that could be repeated, something with a bit of pattern to it so it can be scaled, but then also something instantly kind of recognisable, and the word that was used a lot at the very beginning was iconic.
It had to be quite clear; there was a lot of back and forth, and I think at first I was maybe complicating things or overthinking things, as you can imagine for something this big, but eventually we started to refine it, and we got something really nice out of it.
Probably the most exciting thing is that there’s going to be a huge eight-foot sculpture of it [the core design] being made to go in the foyer of the Kimpton Hotel. There are flags, there’s loads of printed graphics, you know, little details like beer coasters and menus – it’s just going to be everywhere.
Incredible, and obviously, you’ve lived in Manchester for a long time now, so how special does it feel to play a part in such a big moment for the city?
You know, I’ve been here for 17 years, and it’s a special place that’s deserving of it. I’ve worked in the creative industries for nearly two decades now, and we’re very proud of what we do up here.
I work in the film industry as well, and there’s always a bit of a groan amongst Manchester crew when, you know, a load of people come up from London to do a job instead of hiring Mancunians, but any myths about the North are always dispelled quite quickly.
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Yeah, no one can question our work ethic. What is it about Greater Manchester that inspires you?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Inspiration for me is like through osmosis: it’s a gradual thing, and it sort of steadily shapes who I am and my creative output.
I can’t just pinpoint any one specific thing about Manchester, but it’s a place that has had a profound effect on who I am, what I like, and what I like doing. I’ve enjoyed the fruits of Manchester to the full – probably a little bit too hard at times, hence these dark circles under my eyes!
Ha, glad to hear it. What about that ‘music being universal’ brief – how do you go about being referential in your work, or do you create it for yourself and just hope it connects with others?
That’s a really nice question, actually. So the audience always starts with me; I feel like if I’m producing something that I like, then hopefully others will also like it. It can be tricky at times NOT to try and second-guess what your audience might like. I think a lot of artists do that in all disciplines.
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But yeah, I have to be quite strict now, and make what feels right to me, because if I like it, then I can talk about it and present it with pride. I think with that, it will eventually find its own audience.
Love that – now, I know it’s a hard question, but if you had to sum the visual style of this work in just three words, what would they be?
Oh, come on, haha! Erm… OK, well I’m going start with that word that kicked it all off: iconic. I’m going to put the word ‘fruity’ in the middle – you know it’s bright and juicy – and I’m going to say the word accessible to finish it off.
Iconic, fruity, and accessible – I was never guessing that one, haha. As for the night itself, which famous faces are going to make you double-take?
Well, I know Pulp are up for an award, and so I’m from the era of, you know: being glued to the Brits and, you know, the whole Michael Jackson-Jarvis Cocker saga, etc. I think that’s a pretty iconic moment in British history, so I’d love Pulp to because I think Jarvis has always got something very interesting to say.
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For sure, and how do you think the spectacle of the BRIT Awards has changed over the years?
I think the shape of performance has changed a lot in the last decade. People really put on big shows, don’t they? Like it’s not it’s no longer just, you know, a backdrop with the band name on it, it’s pyrotechnics, dancers, massive visual effects, and so much more.
Last but not least, which of those big performances from that unreal lineup are you most looking forward to seeing?
I think, deservedly, up for an Achievement Award: Mark Ronson. I think that’s going to be great, and I’m looking forward to seeing Wolf Alice, too.
It’s not necessarily the kind of gig that I would go to, to be honest – I love electronic and a lot of older music a lot – but I’ve actually got tickets to see Mogwai on Friday as well, so it’s set up to be a very energetic weekend.
It was a pleasure chatting with Alex, and we definitely caught the extra tailwind of his enthusiasm, as if we weren’t buzzing enough already.
Like the man himself, a few members of our Audio North team will be at the 2026 BRIT Awards themselves, and we can’t wait to see all the glitz and glamour in the flesh.
Stay tuned to our socials over on Instagram, as well as our usual The Manc pages, to make sure you don’t miss a second of the coverage.
Happy BRITs Week!
What a busy week we've got – board game festivals, new foodie openings… oh, and The @BRITs comes to our city this weekend for the first time ever too. 🎶🐝🏆
Daisy Jackson -
24th June 2022 
