The best Halloween events happening in Manchester 2021
From an immersive drive in cinema with a 'scare tunnel' to dinner in the dark and a horror maze set in an old mill, there's loads going on for Halloween in Manchester this year
There is so much happening for Halloween in Manchester this year, with a host of truly frightening spooky events taking place across the region in 2021.
From the return of the much-loved inflatable monster trail to some new events including an immersive horror maze featuring live actors, and even a spooky skate rink where you’ll glide on the ice alongside monsters, there’s plenty to get stuck into this Halloween.
Keep reading to discover some of our top picks for what’s going on in the city (and further afield) this year.
Image: Manchester BID / City Co
An inflatable monster trail in Manchester city centre
Every year City Co pulls out a host of inflatable monsters, which perch on rooftops and hang off buildings around Manchester city centre throughout the spooky season. This year, there will be eight dotted around town created by artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas.
Find the list of their locations and more info here.
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A classic murder mystery tale, reimagined at the theatre
The Manchester Opera House is hosting a reimagined telling of the classic murder mystery tale The Cat and The Canary. Having inspired three classic movies starring the likes of Bob Hope, Honor Blackman, and Olivia Hussey, it’s now coming to Manchester for a week-long run starting on Monday 25 October.
A series of Film4 FilmFear festival screenings at HOME
Bringing a line-up of horror, dark fairy-tales, eerie thrillers, and chilling tales to HOME, FilmFear returns to HOME for its sixth year. You can also catch it on the Film4 channel throughout the Halloween period.
Dinner in the dark at Manchester’s highest restaurant
Manchester’s highest restaurant 20 Stories is hosting its annual dining in the dark event on Sunday 31 October, offering a four-course menu alongside a welcome drink for £55 a head in partnership with Belvedere. Bookable in three sittings, the blackout dinner is a seasonal favourite.
An immersive horror maze, set inside an old Victorian mill
A walk-through horror maze, set within an old Victorian mill, this immersive live Halloween experience is not for the faint of heart. Think live actors, sensory experiences, intense soundscapes, strobe lighting and atmospherics.
Complete with Halloween-themed music, lighting, and a band of ghoulish skating monsters, the scare skate ice rink experience takes place from 22 to 31 October. Suitable for the whole family, fancy dress is very welcome.
A Halloween-themed mini escape room series for kids
With ten different rooms to choose from, this series of Halloween-themed mini escape rooms are tailored towards primary school-age children. Your group gets 5 minutes in each room to solve the riddle and move on to the next, with the whole experience lasting 50 minutes in total.
Lego Discovery Centre Manchester / Image: Jason Lock Further
A ‘Brick or treat’ event at Legoland Discovery Centre
Featuring a special Lego pumpkin building session, a scarevenger hunt and a Halloween boogie with the centre’s character mascots Scarecrow and Lord Vampyre, this ‘brick or treat’ event is great for kids this Halloween. You’ll get to make a giant lego vampire with the Master Model Builder and loads more.
Park N Party’s Scare City returns to Trafford’s Soccer Dome, screening a frightening selection of films whilst terrifying performers swarm on unsuspecting viewers’ cars. There’s also a drive-through scare tunnel, for those feeling brave.
All indoors, the specially-created Trick or Treat town at Alton Towers is full of townsfolk who trick or treat visitors. Walk down Spooky Avenue before moving onto houses in Treat Street, Witchy Woods, The Graveyard, and The Hill – knocking on doors to collect lots of sweet treats, as well as some spooky surprises.
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.
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.
Dr. Mancenstein’s exploded castle and garden experience
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 are also home to a menagerie of creepy characters.
A ‘monsters welcome’ procession through Manchester
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.
Nao at New Century, Manchester – A room full of 1,000 ‘Happy People’
Thomas Melia
Attending a Nao gig is worth waiting ‘Another Lifetime’ for… especially when she performs directly from the venue’s bar.
As someone who has followed this artist for quite a few years, finally getting to see her do what she does best on stage and not through a screen is immense.
Last time she stopped off in Manchester she graced Albert Hall,this time she’s opted for another historic venue, New Century.Nao clearly knows how to choose her venues wisely.
Recently, the Nottingham star released her album Jupiter. So recent in fact, that it only reached our ears two weeks ago. The Manchester crowd certainly did their homework, knowing every lyric off by heart.
The first taste of this LP skyrocketed into our ears in October when the singer-songwriter dropped ‘Wildflowers’, so it’s only fitting this marks the opening of this setlist.
This single’s accompanying music video saw her swarmed in a field of red-hue wild grass and it’s made its way to our vibrant city, decorating the Manchester stage.
Credit: The Manc Group
To follow this, she plays two tracks both taken from her other planetary project Saturn. ‘If You Ever’ is a great fire-starter ahead of a cracking night of live music.
It’s almost like someone flips a switch as the audience immediately understands the assignment, feeling every rhythm in their body, rapping The Lumineers name-dropping ‘Make It Out Alive’ verbatim.
Credit: The Manc Group
Four songs in and ‘Happy People’ gets a turn at exciting the crowd. This uplifting and guitar-plucking number is one you can’t help but move to and New Century proves just that.
Nao’s personality flutters over the wild grass adorning the stage and radiates into the flurry of fans. One of these fans has travelled all the way from Portugal and ‘Tommy’, the Manchester legend, who’s attended every city centre tour date, both of which Nao pointed out.
When the 37-year-old star sings her two Mura Masa produced bangers, that bouncy floor at New Century isn’t ready for what’s about to unfold.
Initiating the two-track ensemble the “Woa woa woa woa woa” filled, ‘Complicated’, excites and emits an electric energy, definitely helped by Nao’s necessary yet unexpected dance break.
Credit: The Manc Group
With the second anthemic instalment of the night ‘Firefly’, Nao sings, “Just say you’ll be my firefly” and with vocals this hypnotic, the crowd would do anything she asked of them.
An encore usually means giving a three minute rendition of your biggest hit. Well for Nao this isn’t enough. Instead she takes things one step further, climbing onto the venue’s bar for a stripped back version of ‘Another Lifetime’ and after those vocals my legs were liquid jelly.
Ending the night on even more of a high, Nao sings ‘Drive and Disconnect’ a standout in her discography and a much-loved track, proved by the fact she brings fans on stage to close the night with her.
Credit: The Manc Group
Don’t meet your idols, they say, but when your idol is even better live than on her studio recordings, it’s hard to stay away. Thank you Nao for blessing Manchester once again and me for the very first time.
Sabrina Carpenter at Co-op Live, Manchester – tickets, times, setlist, and more for Short ‘n’ Sweet tour
Thomas Melia
Sabrina Carpenter is bringing her live show to Manchester, as the blonde bombshell’s Short ‘n’ Sweet Tour heads to Co-op Live.
Ex-Disney actress turned worldwide phenomenon, Sabrina Carpenter is jetting her way up and down Europe to embark on the second leg of the massive tour.
The Pennsylvania native has been a consistent face for pop culture, through her ‘Nonsense’ outros and her various ‘Juno’ positions which end with the risqué lyric, “Have you ever tried this one?”.
From ‘Espresso’, ‘Taste’ to ‘Please Please Please’, it comes as no surprise that this singer had the UK’s Official Charts in her fingertips, racking up 20 weeks at the top spot last year.
The ‘Feather’ singer has chosen Co-op Live, the newest live music entertainment venue in the city boasting a 23,500 capacity as the sweet spot for her new tour.
If you’re lucky enough to be heading down to see Sabrina Carpenter in Manchester, here’s everything you need to know.
Sabrina Carpenter UK tour dates
Thu 6 March – Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena
Sat 8 March – London, UK – The O2
Sun 9 March – London, UK – The O2
Tue 11 March – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
Thu 13 March – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Fri 14 March – Manchester, UK – Co-op Live
Sabrina Carpenter tickets for Co-op Live gig
As expected, all the tickets for this two-show event have been snapped up and I think you’d have to use your ‘Sharpest Tool’ to try and prize them from the hands of any loyal Sabrina fans.
There’s always the possibility that some final tickets may get released up to a few hours before, however there are no guarantees. Eager fans can check out the Ticketmaster official site HERE.(Just in case).
However if you’re willing to drop a couple of £100’s, there’s one ticket on fan to fan resale site Twickets in the region of £430!
Sabrina Carpenter setlist
There’s no ‘Slim Pickins’ around here as Ms. Carpenter has done her absolute best to condense her vast discography into a ‘Short ‘n’ Sweet’ eighteen track array of career highlights.
Taste
Good Graces
Slim Pickins
Tornado Warnings
Bed Chem
Feather
Read your Mind
Fast Times
opposite
Sharpest Tool
because i liked a boy
Coincidence
Nonsense
Dumb & Poetic
Juno
Please Please Please
Don’t Smile
Espresso
What are the stage times for Sabrina Carpenter in Manchester?
Co-op Live has a strict curfew of 11pm meaning concertgoers can be safe knowing they’ve heard Carpenter’s hits and still be able to get tucked up under the covers for that all important beauty sleep.
Doors for ‘The Short ‘n’ Sweet Tour’ are scheduled for 5.30pm with a kick off time of 7pm with support from one of the UK’s finest indie talents, Rachel Chinouriri.
How to get to Co-op Live
Tram
For those of you heading to Co-op Live, luckily it’s right next door to a rather famous big blue stadium and its integrated Metrolink stop.
Head along the light blue or orange lines directly to the Etihad Campus or Ashton-under-Lyne and you can get off the tram literally spitting distance from the arena. You can find the full map HERE.
Trams run frequently on the Ashton-Eccles line to the Etihad stop, with services leaving every six minutes from the city centre and until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
Bus
You can find the full list of bus routes HERE, with the one in closest proximity to the venue being the 53 bus which runs from Cheetham Hill through to Higher Crumpsall, Old Trafford and Pendleton, leaving just a two-minute walk to Co-op Live. You also get free Bee Network travel with any valid event ticket.
Getting there by car and parking
If you’re driving, there is limited parking available at the venue but this must be pre-booked ahead of time and there are designated drop-off areas.
The postcode is M11 3DU and you can follow the signs towards the wider Etihad Campus as you get closer; directions to the adjacent drop-off points will also be signposted.
Keep in mind that congestion on the roads close to the stadium is expected to gather around two hours prior to any event, so if you are travelling on the road, these are the suggested times they provide come event day – though estimates will obviously vary:
Alan Turing Way (both directions): plan an additional 20 minutes into any journey by road.
Hyde Road (eastbound): expect an additional 15 minutes to be added to your journey.
Mancunian Way (westbound): plan for an extra 10 minutes of travel time.
There are also three park-and-ride facilities near Co-op Live but be advised that the Velopark and Holt Town stops will be closed post-event to help safely manage crowds:
Ashton West (Ashton line) – 184 spaces and 11 disabled spaces
Ladywell (Ashton-Eccles line) – 332 spaces and 22 disabled spaces
Walk/cycle
Lastly, Co-op Live is only a half-hour stroll from Manchester Piccadilly and you could even walk along the canal all the way to the front door if you fancy taking the scenic route.
Greater Manchester now also offers the option to hire bikes through the Beryl, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the boke all through an easy-to-use app. There are hire points just near the south-west corner of the Etihad Stadium on Ashton New Road.
For more information on all travel options, you can check out the enhanced journey planner.
Georgina Pellant -
5th October 2021 
