What's On
The best things to do in Greater Manchester this week | 10 – 16 March 2025
Emily Sergeant -
6th March 2025 
Who’s been enjoying our first taste of spring weather? Well we definitely have.
Now that March is in full swing, the temperatures have risen and the sun has been showing its face a little in recent weeks, there’s absolutely no shortage of things for the whole family to be getting up to in Greater Manchester this week – both free things, and those that’ll set you back a few pennies too.
Finding it a bit tricky to pick what to do though?
We’ve chosen a few of the best bits for another edition of our ‘what’s on‘ guide, so here’s some of our recommendations.
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Manchester Irish Festival 2025
Manchester City Centre
Monday 10 – Monday 17 March
Manchester’s massive Irish Festival has returned to the city centre.
The biggest of its kind in the whole of Europe, Manchester Irish Festival is known and loved for putting on 10 whole days of Irish revelry in the heart of the city centre every year – with something for everyone of all ages to get involved with.
Taking place right through to St Patrick’s Day on Monday 17 March, you can now make the most of a jam-packed lineup of more than 100 events spanning the whole city.
Find out more here.
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Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You
Science and Industry Museum
Monday 10 March – onwards
You can plunge headfirst into the incredible world of our senses at a new immersive museum exhibition that’s now arrived at the Science and Industry Museum.
Back by popular demand after a successful run over these past two years, but with a fresh new adventure lined up for 2025, Operation Ouch! is giving you the chance to journey through an ear canal covered in gooey wax, squeeze past sticky snot, and delve deeper into how our brains interpret the world.
Tickets to Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You are now on sale, and visitors are being told to prepare themselves for an “epic exploration of the senses”.
Find out more here.
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Six Nations Fanzone 2025
Freight Island
Monday 10 – Saturday 15 March
This is your last chance to head to Freight Island’s Six Nations fanzone for 2025.
The iconic international tournament is finally drawing to a close this week, and so is Freight Island’s fantastic fan experience, providing an unparalleled level of excitement beyond being inside the stadium.
Having proved to be even bigger and better than last year, it’s the largest of its kind anywhere in the country, with everything from free pints and prosecco, live music, top-notch scran from Freight’s in-house vendors, and so much more.
Find out more here.
Looking for other places to watch the Six Nations?
We’re absolutely spoiled for choice with places showing all the sporting action across Greater Manchester, so if you’re looking to get together with your mates, we’ve rounded up some of the best places to head to here.
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NEW OPENING – Oxygen Activeplay
MediaCityUK
A brand-new indoor activity park has now opened down at MediaCity.
Salford was chosen by Oxygen Activeplay as the location for its next venture, and the brand-new park has descended on Quayside MediaCity, just above bustling food hall Kargo MKT, following a £2.5 million investment – with state-of-the-art equipment and activities to help local families stay active whilst having fun at the same time.
The new park features more than 30 trampolines, a mega-air bag, a high ropes course, a ‘Rollglider’ aerial ride which flies over the facility, and Oxygen’s signature illuminated sensory experience ‘Excite Tunnel’, along with even more “epic” activities.
Find out more and book tickets here.
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Did you see that Rochdale has been named Greater Manchester’s ‘Town of Culture’ for 2025?
Taking over the reins from Bolton, which held the title in 2024. it’s now the turn of the north-eastern Greater Manchester borough of Rochdale, and the year will build on the town’s already-rich cultural history and international reputation as the home of the co-operative movement.
More than 35 arts organisations will be bringing together an ambitious programme of festivals, exhibitions, events, and performances throughout the year.
In Rochdale’s case, you can expect the ‘very best local talent’, as this year is promising to put ‘people power’ centre stage, with residents helping to plan, develop, and deliver a lineup of creative activities, alongside a number of major events.
Read more about why it’s been chosen and what this means here.
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How about that Chester Zoo is giving away more than 30,000 free tickets to kids this year?
The UK’s largest charity zoo is on a mission to help nature to “survive and thrive”.
And so, in a bid to do just that, has announced that it will once again be handing out tens of thousands of tickets to schoolchildren for completely free of charge, so that they can explore the zoo up close and learn all about the inspiring work the conservation charity does.
With the hopes of empowering as many youngsters as possible, and sparking their passion for saving species once again, the zoo has now opened the scheme back up for the 2025/26 season – with a whopping 33,000 tickets available for schools, nurseries, and colleges to claim.
Those who secure tickets will have the opportunity to visit the zoo between this November and February 2026.
Find out more here.
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Or even that one of Greater Manchester’s popular museums has been named the best free museum in the UK?
With the Easter holidays not far off, plenty of parents, carers, and guardians across Greater Manchester will likely be looking for a ways to keep the kids entertained and educated while schools are out, and without having to break the bank too.
Luckily enough, Bolton Museum has taken the top spot in a list of the best free museums and galleries to visit in the whole of the UK.
The museum – which is on the Grade II-listed Le Mans Crescent in the town centre, and dates back to 1852 – has been a part of the leisure and education of Boltonians for over 120 years, and is home to one of the largest regional Egyptology collections in the UK, made up of over 10,000 archaeological objects.
There’s also an extensive local history section, with 38,000 objects from the 17th to 20th century relating to Bolton.
Find out more here.
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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Palace Theatre Manchester
Tuesday 11 – Saturday 16 March
A new production of smash-hit musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang arrives in Manchester this weekend.
The truly scrumptious tale, which is centred around a magical flying car, will be taking to the stage at Manchester’s iconic Palace Theatre for a run of shows as part of its UK tour, and audiences will be whisked on a fantastical adventure to far-away lands, with inventor Caractacus Potts and his children Jemima and Jeremy, plus the beautiful Truly Scrumptious.
Famous songs by the Sherman Brothers include ‘Toot Sweets’, ‘Hushabye Mountain’, ‘Truly Scrumptious’, and the Academy Award-nominated title song, ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’.
Find out more and get last-minute tickets here.
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Legends of Steam 2025
East Lancashire Railway
Friday 14 – Sunday 16 March
History will be rolling through Greater Manchester this weekend as loads of legendary steam trains will be showcased.
East Lancashire Railway’s (ELR) Legends of Steam event is back again for the second year after proving so popular last spring, and this time around, there’ll be loads of iconic locomotives with ties to both film and royalty on display.
Returning from Friday 14 – Sunday 16 March, as part of the heritage railway’s ongoing 200th anniversary celebrations, well-known historic steam trains such the LNER A1 Peppercorn Class 60163 ‘Tornado ’ and the LMS Black 5 45407 ‘The Lancashire Fusilier’ will be on display, alongside a pair of ‘Bulleid’ light pacifics too.
Find out more here.
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Manchester Film Festival 2025
ODEON Great Northern
Friday 14 – Sunday 23 March
Manchester Film Festival is back for 2025.
Taking over ODEON at the Great Northern Warehouse for an annual celebration of storytelling through cinema, the city’s biggest celebration of the best new and independent film brings film lovers and filmmakers together for 10 days of screenings, Q&As, red-carpet glamour, and so much more.
Tickets and passes available now, and you can find out more about the stellar lineup of films on show this year here.
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Fancy a free slice of viral multi-layer chocolate cake? You’d be mad not to.
If you’re fed up of your friends in Leeds banging on about how good Get Baked is, then don’t worry because, the headline-grabbing independent bakery is landing in Manchester this week.
If that news wasn’t sweet enough to tempt you to the new opening as it is, they’re also giving away free slices of their viral multi-layer chocolate ‘Bertha’ cake to the first 1,000 people in the queue, so you won’t want to miss this.
Get Baked’s first ever Manchester location will be in the Northern Quarter in the heart of Stevenson Square meaning you can pair your Aperol spritz with a serving of chocolate cake this summer… can life get any better?
Find out more here.
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East Asian Food Fair
GRUB
Sunday 16 March
GRUB’s much-loved East Asian Food Fair is returning for another day packed full of tasty eats this weekend.
The day-long event happening this Sunday is set to treat hungry Mancs to food from six of GRUB’s favourite street food vendors, including some newbies too, who will all be serving up delights directly from the east of Asia.
This means that, from noon right through until early evening, you can feast on Taiwanese fried chicken and Japanese Tonkatsu buns from All Fired Up, South Korean wonders from the aptly-named Korean Grub Club, and fresh noodles with a choice of toppings and drizzles from Wok Bros.
Find out more here.
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Would you like to go and see a brand-new film for free next week? Now’s your chance.
That’s right, thousands of tickets to watch the new heartwarming drama-comedy The Penguin Lessons, starring Middleton’s-own Steve Coogan, are being given away for free all across the UK this month.
It’s all part of Escapes – a project supported by the British Film Institute (BFI) and National Lottery funding giving everyone the opportunity to “enjoy the big screen experience” and “discover independent cinema”.
You can watch the film next Monday (17 March) before it gets its wider release to the general public later on this year.
Find out more and claim your free ticket here.
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Featured Image – Colin Home | GRUB | ELR
