30 people from different households can now gather outdoors, whilst hospitality, entertainment and culture venues have all got the green light to reopen.
And there’s plenty to be getting up to.
If you’re stuck for something to do, this is your go-to guide for what’s on and what’s happening in the city of Manchester and beyond this week.
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Some of the events we’re going to mention here are completely free, others will set you back a few pounds, and most will need to be booked in advance – but all are COVID-secure in order to keep you as safe as possible.
Whatever you fancy doing, though, there’s certainly no shortage of choice in our region, so here’s some of the things you can get stuck into.
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Box on the Docks
MediaCityUK
Monday 17 May – onwards
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Box on the Docks
Do you remember Box on the Docks from 2020?
MediaCityUK’s popular outdoor dining concept Box on the Docks (BOTD) is welcoming customers back to its waterside ‘pods’ this week, with the collection of 30 sheds and greenhouses having undergone renovation from local artists and an exciting range of residents moving into the neighbourhood for the summer.
Beloved local eateries from across the region – Grandad’s Sausages, I Knead Pizza, Bada Bing Deli and Batard Bakery – have all arrived at BOTD.
You can find more information about Box on the Docks 2021 here.
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Top Secret
Science and Industry Museum
Wednesday 19 May – 31 August
Science and Industry Museum
Top Secret: From Ciphers to Cybersecurity will pore over a century’s worth of secret communications and intelligence in an exhibition containing over 100 objects from GCHQ and the Science Museum Group.
The exhibition will include, for the first time, objects related to Alan Turing and his team’s work intercepting German comms at Bletchley Park, and visitors can also explore how Britain protected its skies during WWI, how codes were cracked in WWII, and the ways in which intelligence agencies foiled one of the most successful spy rings operating during the Cold War.
The exhibition will also explore modern digital security – considering recent examples of major cyber hacks such as the WannaCry attack on the NHS.
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You can find more information ahead of the exhibition’s opening here.
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Flower Power Yoga
Angel Meadow Park
Friday 28 May
As part of the Manchester Flower Show, MeadowSide and yoga instructor, Kate Tittley, are hosting a 45-minute ‘flower power’ edition of Yoga in the Meadow at Angel Meadow Park in the Green Quarter from 8am.
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Yoga helps to alleviate stress and anxiety, boost creative energy, enhance metabolism and improve posture, with all experience levels welcome.
Social distancing will be in place at this event, Track and Trace will be required for all in attendance and no yoga mats will be provided due to risk of COVID-19 transmission, so you are asked to bring your own mat.
FAC51 has announced it will return with two live socially-distanced Haçienda House Party shows at Victoria Warehouse on May bank holiday.
On Friday 28 May, Haçienda Classical will take over with Graeme Park and Manchester Camerata, plus DJ Paulette and Peter Hook. On the second night, Sunday 30 May, we’ll see a special set from legends Orbital, alongside A Guy Called Gerald live with DJs Jon Dasilva and Justin Robertson.
Tickets for both events have already gone on sale, but there’s no need to worry if you missed out or can’t make it down as they’ll also be streamed online from 7pm to 12pm for free.
Manchester is about to become the most picturesque places in the country this Saturday, as the city gets dressed up in celebration of the annual Flower Show.
Organised by CityCo and Manchester BID, the nine-day festival – dubbed the “most Instagrammable event of the year” – will see Manchester draped from head to toe in magnificent floral tributes; with plants and flowers covering landmark buildings, shop windows, doorways, balconies, statues and fountains.
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Manchester Flower Show will run until Sunday 6 June, and you can find more information here.
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The Champions League Final at 4TheFans Fan Park
Event City
Saturday 29 May
4TheFans
It’s the Champions League final next Saturday, with Manchester City and Chelsea set to battle it out to take the title, but with only 6,000 fans from each club allowed make the trip the Estadio do Drago in Porto, Portugal to watch the biggest club event in European football, there is even more of a need for a catered and COVID-safe space where fans can come together to watch.
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4TheFans Fan Park at Event City in Trafford will provide the perfect setting for fans to immerse themselves in the atmosphere and action.
Tables start at £70 per table of six and include a drink per person (beer /wine / soft drink) and table snacks.
You can find more information and book your tickets here.
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La Discotheque Bottomless Brunch
Albert Hall
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Saturday 29 May
A glitter-draped disco brunch with an endless amount of Rudy’s pizza and booze is coming to Albert Hall this Saturday.
La Discotheque – the show-stopping party promotion famed for serving up funky dance beats, psychedelic decorations and limb-twisting stage performers – is putting its own excited spin on the classic midday meal event; cranking up disco tunes and partnering with one of Manchester’s most beloved food and drink vendors for the occasion.
Albert Hall’s neighbours and nationally-renowned Neapolitan pizzeria Rudy’s will also provide slices exclusively for the occasion.
Tickets are priced at £40 and you can find more information here.
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Ancoats Pop-Up Market
Ancoats
Saturday 29 May
Ancoats Pop Up
Nestled among the backstreets of Manchester and tucked into the courtyard of an old, red-brick historic mill, Ancoats Pop Up Market is a COVID-safe weekly-run market event which has teamed up with MUD (Manchester Urban Diggers) to supply the neighbourhood with a wealthy selection of fresh, organic and locally-grown fruit and veg, as well as dry goods, all throughout May.
The market also features Manchester-based stallholders serving speciality coffee, locally-brewed rum liquors, locally-sourced bakes and crafts, and more.
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Street food and freshly-brewed coffee is also available while you browse.
The Manchester Cheese Crawl will take you around some of the cheesiest spots the city has to offer for two hours of non-stop cheese-related fun, including everything from blue cheese tasting, to cheese quizzes, competitions and more.
Starting off in St Ann’s Square, the tour wanders across the city and gives you the chance to try the finest cheeses Manchester has to offer along the way.
With tours taking place every Saturday until 25 September, tickets cost just £25 each and include cheese samples, optional bread and crackers, and some red wine to complement.
Manchester’s newest event space is back and it’s better than ever.
Park N Party – the team that delivered both the sell-out successes of ScareCity and ChristmasCity, and a number of other outdoor live events throughout 2020 – has launched SecretCity, and there’s a whole host of immersive drive-in entertainment events happening this week.
There’s screenings of cinema classics such as Pretty Woman, The Jungle Book, Grease, The Exorcist, Sinister and more all on show throughout the week.
Tickets must be booked in advance, and you can grab yours from £35 per car here.
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Totally Roarsome
Mottram Hall
Monday 24 – Sunday 30 May
Totally Roarsome
Named by many as being one of the safest attractions for all the family in Greater Manchester, Totally Roarsome took the region by storm last summer after it opened to the public following the initial lifting of coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown restrictions in mid-2020, with visitors flocking from far and wide.
Now at the new location of Mottram Hall, just over the border into Cheshire, Totally Roarsome features everything from dinosaurs, jungle animals and Arctic creatures, to superheroes, pirates and cartoon characters.
Tickets are priced at £7.95 per ticket (+ £1.50 booking fee, per transaction), and must be booked in advance online from the Totally Roarsome Facebook page.
This is to manage and restrict the number of visitors / families being allowed around the attraction at any one at a time, with five minutes between slots, to allow for necessary COVID-safety precautions and social distancing measures to be upheld.
You can find out more information, and book your tickets here.
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BBQ Cookery Class
Food Sorcery
Sunday 30 May
Didsbury’s very-own cookery school, Food Sorcery, is helping you to enhance your barbecue repertoire with a BBQ Cookery class this Sunday.
In this easy four-hour class catered to all ability levels, you’ll learn basic skills such as lighting the BBQ and temperature control, alongside creating six tasty dishes as this event is about enjoying the BBQ experience with a focus on preparing and cooking meat, fish, vegetables and sides.
The class will include welcome drinks, all ingredients, and access to a great bar with fantastic beers, wines and spirits to enjoy throughout the day.
You can find more information, and book your slot on the course here.
The OT Art Trail – which has been organised by OT Creative Space and is funded by Arts Council England – sees a number of local artists work together with members of the Manchester community to create six individual large scale murals which have been painted onto walls and building gable ends around the area, including in Seymour Park and Ayres Road.
The new murals have added to murals and artwork already seen around Old Trafford.
The several new street art sites will be linked together via a downloadable audio tour, which is suitable for people of all ages.
Each mural centres around the theme ‘community togetherness and diversity’.
You can find more information on The OT Art Trail via the OT creative SPACE website here.
What's On
A popular Manc streetwear brand is hosting a big festival to mark their fifth birthday
Danny Jones
Popular Manchester streetwear and footwear brand, CLINTS Inc., is hosting its first-ever festival to mark five whole years in fashion – and it’s going to be big.
The highly sought-after clothing and sneaker make started out from a bedroom in Moston and is now a premium label in British urban, skating, UK grime and hip-hop culture, having been worn by many famous names and welcoming even more through the door of their Deansgate shop.
Located in the ABC Buildings on Quay Street next to Spinningfields, the flagship CLINTS store opened back in 2022 and is much more than a place to buy some new drip: it’s a place that showcases art, music, and a whole sub-sect of shopping beyond just skate silhouettes and trendy trainers.
As hack as it might sound to some, wearing this brand comes along with immersing yourself in the wider style and scene; the very same scene being celebrated in tandem with their fifth birthday.
Not to tease you more than the company already has, but as you can see, details are scarce.
There is no lineup or even location for this festival… only a date.
CLINTS Fest (the inaugural one, at that) will take place on Saturday, 6 September – presumably at or around the 21-23 Quay Street site, but who knows?
Fans of the brand can sign up for the mailing list for the latest details, and pre-sale tickets are also available now, with a couple of clicks on the website revealing that the event is set to start at 12 noon and wrap up around 10:30pm.
If you’re interested, you can register your interest HERE.
Credit: The Manc Group
While you can expect the festival to be packed to the rafters with die-hard followers of all things CLINTS and streetwear, they’re not the only local indie holding a special one-off this month.
In fact, this weekend, a fellow trainer specialist who is still just starting out life in the fashion game but is already making waves reminiscent of their contemporaries.
Here’s hoping this is just the beginning of the journey and they’re the next Manc brand to become a national success story.
Featured Images — The Manc Group/CLINTS Inc (via Instagram)
What's On
The best things to do in Greater Manchester this week | 2 – 8 June 2025
Emily Sergeant
June is here, and the kids have gone back to school after the final half term of the school year… but that doesn’t mean the fun’s over.
Sure, May has been in full bloom these past couple of weeks, but there’s absolutely no shortage of things for the whole family to be getting up to in Greater Manchester now that June has arrived – we’re talking festivals, themed events, new foodie openings, and loads more on the horizon.
Finding it a bit tricky to pick what to do though? No worries.
We’ve chosen a few of the highlights for another edition of our ‘what’s on‘ guide, both free things, and those that’ll set you back a few pennies too.
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Stories – Brought To Life
MediaCityUK
Monday 2 June – onwards
Stories – Brought To Life / Credit: The Manc Group
A major new National Portrait Gallery exhibition has arrived in Salford.
The ground-breaking new experience by FRAMELESS Creative has opened at MediaCity, bringing some of the world’s most famous portraits to life like never before.
Stories – Brought to Life will explore the fascinating lives of these figures, who have shaped the UK’s history and culture all the way since the Tudor period, and will combine the highest quality digital projection, Hollywood-style visual effects, and the latest audio technology, along with specially created musical scores and creative narratives to shine a new light on each individual.
Visitors will be able to step inside iconic portraits including Grayson Perry, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Emmeline Pankhurst, Queen Elizabeth I, and William Shakespeare.
Balcony Greening Workshops / Credit: National Trust
Free balcony greening workshops are happening across Greater Manchester this spring to help people create their own ‘mini wildlife havens’.
The National Trust is on a mission to help city dwellers create their own green spaces through its ‘Sky Gardening Challenge’, with the conservation charity encouraging people with balconies to ‘grow and green’ the town or city they live in from skyline spaces in the hopes that it’ll enhance their connection to nature and improve their wellbeing, all while helping wildlife thrive at the same time.
City dwellers can get a free balcony gardening guide, free seeds, and free workshops in collaboration with lots of brilliant community organisations across the region.
Classes are happening across the borough on selected dates up until 7 June, and you can find out more and book here.
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Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You
Science and Industry Museum
Monday 2 June – onwards
Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You / Credit: Science Museum Group
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”.
An award-winning play about the England men’s national football team is playing outside of London for the first time ever, and Greater Manchester has been chosen as the lucky location.
The National Theatre’s smash-hit production of writer James Graham’s Olivier Award-winning play, Dear England, has started its four-week run at the legendary The Lowry in Salford, and audiences have a chance to catch it up until 29 June.
Directed by the Almeida Theatre’s Artistic Director, Rupert Goold, Dear England tells the story of the England men’s football team under former manager, Gareth Southgate.
NEW OPENING – Circolo Popolare / Credit: The Manc Group
Get ready to say Ciao to Circolo Popolare, Manchester’s newest Italian restaurant opening over in Gary Neville’s fancy St Michael’s development early next month, because we got to have a little look around and can confirm it’s an absolute feast for the senses.
From the jasmine-covered ceiling to the windows full of vintage booze bottles, all the way down to the hand-painted crockery, she’s certainly a looker.
On the menus you’ll find authentic Neapolitan pizzas, huge pasta bowls, authentic plates, and a gigantic wibbly-wobbly tower of a lemon meringue pie – plus cocktails poured from animal-shaped jugs.
It’s officially opening on 6 June and this is one you want to get straight in your calendar.
L.S. Lowry’s iconic masterpiece ‘Going to the Match’ is being brought to life right before your eyes in this brand-new exhibition now open at The Lowry.
Lowry 360 is an immersive experience forming part of the legendary The Lowry theatre’s 25th anniversary programme, and it means that, for the first time ever, you can see one of Manchester’s most famous paintings by, arguably, the city’s most famous artist come to life through sight and sound.
Better yet, after you’ve immersed yourself in this incredible experience, then you can then see the actual painting in the full gallery – Modern Life: The LS Lowry Exhibition.
Kargo on the Docks / Credit: Supplied | Mark Waugh
Kargo on the Docks is back for the summer.
MediaCity’s al fresco dining pop-up has taken over the waterfront and gardens once again with a fresh wave of local food traders and stunning artwork by Salford-based creatives, all as the sun shines down on Salford Quays this summer.
A handful of Greater Manchester’s most popular independents have set themselves up Quayside inside those signature re-imagined shipping containers.
Foodies can expect a menu packed with bold new flavours including Caribbean, Lebanese, Mexican, Ethiopian, and Pan-Asian dishes.
Did you see that Manchester Museum has been named European Museum of the Year for 2025?
Talk about a prestigious title.
Yes that’s right, congratulations are in order, because Manchester Museum – which is part of The University of Manchester (UoM) – has received one of the most prestigious museum awards in the world, the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA).
Not only that, but it’s made history in doing so too, as it’s the first university museum to ever receive the annual prize.
Manchester Museum has been named the European Museum of the Year for 2025 / Credit: Manchester Museum
It beat out 41 other cultural hubs across the continent to claim the coveted prize.
Operated by the European Museum Forum (EMF), EMYA recognises new or redeveloped museums that showcase the best in excellence and innovation in their field.
NEW OPENING – Baby Mayhem / Credit: The Manc Group
This new doughnut hatch in Anocats is already causing mayhem… but the best kind.
Baby Mayhem has been open for two weeks and is already taking Manchester by storm, with fresh doughnuts baked daily, filled with mascarpone cream or cheesecake, and topped with a range of fillings like spaghetti ice cream, Dubai pistachio kunafa, raspberry ripple, and loads more.
It may not be for everyone, but we say be sure to try one of their fresh doughnuts dunked in coffee as well, it’s the perfect hangover cure on a Saturday morning.
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Free Sausage Rolls for ‘Gregs’
Tariff & Dale
Thursday 5 June
Tariff & Dale sausage roll / Credit: Supplied
One of Manchester’s much-loved restaurant bars is doing a free sausage roll giveaway this week… but there’s a catch.
The catch being you have to have a certain name in particular.
In case you didn’t know, this Thursday (5 June) is the day dedicated to all things sausage roll, so what better way to mark the occasion than with free portions of Tariff & Dale’s legendary 15-inch honey glazed meaty treat? Only the thing is, you can only get a freebie if your name happens to Greg.
Okay, that’s a slight lie, you can also tuck into the pork pastry goodness if your surname is Gregory or Gregson, or something similar.
Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet will be celebrating its 30th anniversary with a huge free concert that’ll hark back to the 2000s.
The hugely-popular shopping destination will be inviting customers to a totally free summer gig on a stage built on site as part of the wider 30th anniversary celebrations – which will include a headline performance from a top-secret 2000s music act.
All they’ve revealed about the headliner so far is that they have a catalogue of number one singles and beloved hits.
Taking place in the evening of Friday 6 June, the Cheshire Oaks 30th anniversary party will be free to shoppers and visitors, and a select group of VIPs from the local community will have the opportunity to meet the mystery headliner in person.
Read everything you need to know about the event here.
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Stock Party 2025
Stockport
Saturday 7 June
Stock Party 2025 / Credit: Supplied
Stockport’s big summer block party returns this Saturday for its second edition.
Building on that already-winning formula from last year, Stock Party 2025 is set to make its sophomore outing the biggest yet, bringing together local food and drink vendors, independent traders, entertainment and lots more.
Set up in collaboration with Stockport’s Business Improvement District (BID), Totally Stockport and Stockport Council, the iconic Underbank district will be filled with tables and chairs enabling festival-goers to welcome summer in true Stockport style.
IRONMAN 70.3 / Credit: IRONMAN England (via Facebook)
IRONMAN 70.3 returns to Bolton once again this weekend.
With Bolton – and more recently, also Wigan – having been the UK-based home to the world-renowned triathlon event for the past several years now, IRONMAN UK has become known for its iconic spectator support, incredible bike course scenery, and impressive finish line that’s in the heart of the town centre
The Greater Manchester public is always encouraged to line the streets to cheer the athletes on.
A number of temporary road closures will be in place across Bolton on race day to ensure the safety of athletes and the public.
Emily Sergeant -
21st May 2021 
