Who’s ready for another fun-filled week in Manchester?
February is here, the nights are getting lighter, the temperatures a little warmer, and not only does Greater Manchester‘s events calendar already seem very exciting over these next few weeks, but there’s also lots of other things to look forward to in 2025 too, so it’s time to fill up your diaries.
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 to help you out.
Here’s some of our recommendations.
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PUSH Festival 2025
HOME MCR
Monday 3 January – Saturday 8 February
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PUSH Festival 2025 / Credit: HOME MCR
PUSH Festival has return to Manchester for its biennial celebration of North West creative talent.
Set over two weeks, the stages, screens, and spaces down at HOME MCR will be dedicated to showcasing fantastic works from around the region, as well as offering opportunities for creatives to meet industry professionals, share ideas and inspiration and develop their skills.
Freight Island’s Six Nations fanzone has returned for 2025.
The iconic international tournament is now underway, and so is Freight Island’s fantastic fan experience, providing an unparalleled level of excitement beyond being inside the stadium.
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Already proving 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.
A groundbreaking new immersive exhibition exploring our relationship with the natural world is now open at Manchester Museum.
‘Wild’ look at how people are creating, rebuilding, and repairing connections with nature, and how the natural world has traditionally been presented and idealised through Western art, as well as looking at some unique approaches to environmental recovery too.
The exhibition will also crucially look at how we can tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis by making the world more wild.
Smash-hit musical Kinky Boots is currently out on a tour of the UK, and the talented cast will be stopping off in our city.
The Broadway and West End phenomenon, which is based on a true story and is an adaptation of a 2005 film of the same name, has become known and loved by musical theatre fans all across the globe, and it will be taking to the iconic Palace Theatre stage this week.
This 2025 revival production is already being billed as “guaranteed to raise you up” and “celebrate everybody’s individuality”.
An all-new musical featuring the music of Dolly Parton is on stage in Manchester this week.
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After workin’ 9 to 5, what better way to unwind than with a musical packed with hits spanning the Queen of Country music’s legendary roster? This production sees the story of a diehard fan recounting ways in which Dolly Parton and her hits have helped him throughout his life.
Tricia Paoluccio takes on the role of the international icon, sprinkling her sunshine, knowledge, and wit wherever she goes.
A huge gaming event is happening in Manchester this weekend.
With more than 160 consoles and hundreds of games to play, Power UP at the Science and Industry takes ticket-holders on a journey through five decades of gaming, with everything from retro arcade games, to state-of-the-art virtual reality, and so much more.
Power UP is taking place each weekend only throughout this month, with each ticket including unlimited play all day.
Manchester gem Hello Oriental has finally opened its new Asian food hall at the Trafford Centre.
The renowned East Asian street food hub has chosen the Trafford Centre as the first UK shopping centre location to bring its trademark street food dining concept to, and there’s more than 100 delicious dishes for customers to choose from.
Hello Oriental owners and childhood best friends, Ricky Yip and Azim Kourah, say they have selected some of the most popular dishes from the Manchester city centre site’s extensive menu for the new Trafford Centre restaurant.
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This means diners can enjoy traditional dishes from across East Asia, including a wide range of Dim Sum, fluffy baos, Korean fried chicken, and three varieties of sticky chicken wings.
The Christie Charity’s ‘Night of Neon’ 2025 / Credit: The Christie Charity
The Night of Neon charity walk is making its return to light up Salford Quays this weekend to raise money for The Christie Charity.
Always a popular event in the calendar, over 600 enthusiastic participants are set to take to the Quays to have fun, while raising money for The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, and supporting the thousands of patients who are treated for cancer at The Christie Hospital in Withington.
This luminescent fundraiser will also feature pre-walk entertainment – including a six-piece roaming band, face painting, glitter artists, and so much more.
Brickhouse Social has announced that it 90s-themed brunch is back by popular demand.
The Manchester social hub is inviting music lovers down to enjoy 90-minutes of bottomless pizza slices, fizz, bottled beers, and select cocktails on its ooftop terrace every Saturday over the nexr couple of months – with a resident DJ playing all the best tunes from the nineties.
There’s two brunch sittings available, so you can opt for 1-3pm or 3:30-5:30pm, and you can get booking your table now.
Want to watch the biggest game on the biggest screen?
GRUB is hosting a Super Bowl LIX party this Sunday, and will be showing the game on the biggest screen in the venue, the upstairs cinema CULTPLEX, so if you’re keen to see the Philadelphia Eagles face the Kansas City Chiefs, then this is the place to be.
Expect a relaxed environment, big screen fun from 9pm, and special menu from Oscar’s Dogs served between 9pm and 11pm to help you fill your belly for a long night of football action.
Featured Image – Freight Island | The Manc Group | Supplied
What's On
The same team behind the annual Alton Towers run is bringing a new race to Flamingo Land
Danny Jones
Following the success of Run Alton Towers, the same team is bringing a brand-new running event to another Northern attraction with the first-ever Flamingo Land race.
Knowing how popular its forerunner is (pardon the pun), this one is already well on course to sell out.
The inaugural Alton Towers run first took place in November 2021, and now half a decade later, RunThroughUK – the biggest and fastest-growing race organiser in the country – is recreating the format over at Flamingo Land.
Landing next month, the beloved UK theme park and zoo will be joining them in holding two different distances, and you can still be part of it.
Hosted within the grounds of the wider Flamingo Land Resort, the unique route takes participants through the zoo, passing plenty of incredible animals, before continuing through the theme park alongside some of its biggest rides and amusements.
Located in Kirby Misperton up in North Yorkshire, they will be holding both 5-kilometre and 10km runs around the venue.
With the promotion and sporting events company having already comfortably proved they can hold a slick and seamless running event throughout the 500-acre plot, there’s set to be even more jam-packed sights to see as you jog zip through the slightly smaller and multi-purpose park.
As always with RunThrough dates, runners of all abilities are welcome; whether you’re chasing a personal best or simply looking for a different kind of race route, you’re sure to have a memorable time.
And yes, for those wondering: just like with its Staffordshire counterpart, you do get to stay and enjoy all the rides, wildlife and more as part of your entry fee afterwards.
Even better still, not only will every runner be treated to accurate chip timing, a fully marked course, enthusiastic marshals and support from spectators, but you also get a unique finisher’s medal.
Oh yeah, and you get all of your race pictures for FREE, as is standard with RunThrough events. Belter.
With race day not far away, the final places are filling fast for what promises to be one of the UK’s most unique new running events – not to mention one we fully expect to become another annual addition.
Taking place on Saturday, 5 September 2026, you can secure your bibs for the 5/10k running race HERE.
Featured Images — Publicity pictures (supplied via RunThrough)
What's On
Manchester pub chain providing lifeline for dementia sufferers with vital support sessions
Danny Jones
A regional pub chain is being rightly praised for providing regular and vital support sessions to those suffering from dementia at two beloved Manchester locations.
The brand in question is Joseph Holt Brewery, which was founded behind an old pub on Oak Street in the Northern Quarter back in 1849, and has gone on to become an instantly recognisable British name.
Serving patrons for the best part of two centuries, their watering holes have always served as important meeting places and community hubs, but one of their current local initiatives is one of the most heartwarming we’ve come across of late.
Dubbed the ‘Get Together Group’, these dementia support sessions, which are now being pioneered at two of their Greater Manchester pubs, are truly setting an example for the kind of grassroots work and outreach that publicans do.
Put simply, the Get Together Group hold sessions for those diagnosed with dementia, and indeed, members of families affected by the disease to meet, discuss and support one another.
Currently being hosted at The Goat’s Gate in Whitefield and The Woodthorpe in Prestwich – both beloved Joseph Holt boozers – the idea was started by Sonia Schofield, 53, who now runs the sessions with a band of dedicated volunteers.
“People just seem to love the warm atmosphere and general sense of community,” says Sonia. “There’s free tea, coffee, and biscuits, along with bingo, a raffle, and some fabulous singers who come along to entertain the group.
“Word has spread that this is such a lively and welcoming space that even people without a direct connection to dementia regularly come along – which is so lovely. It also adds to a sense of community, helps break down stigma around dementia and makes the group feel warm, inclusive, and caring.”
Having worked as part of the brewery for more than three and a half decades since joining as an 18-year-old, this became a passion project of hers after her beloved grandmother, Pam, who had raised her from the age of six, developed dementia in her late sixties.
As is sadly the case for many, it soon became clear that support for those struggling with dementia is unfortunately rather limited, with Royal Voluntary Service figures stating that more than a third of people even just caring for loved ones with dementia receive little or no support following diagnosis.
Goat’s GateThe WoodthorpeHere’s hoping it comes to more pubsWith 125 other establishments, this could be the start of something special. (Credit: CAMRA/Joseph Holt/The Manc Group)
Believed to be the first sessions of their kind held in a pub, the reception to the regular work done by Get Together has meant that it isn’t just people living with the condition directly that now attend: people throughout the local areas are turning to the bi-weekly meet-ups for connection and social interaction.
Sonia goes on to note that because “the atmosphere in a pub is far less formal than, say, a healthcare or community centre setting, this helps reduce anxiety and makes interaction feel more natural.
“Holding a support group in an everyday community venue also shows that people living with dementia are valued members of the community, not defined only by their diagnosis. Just seeing this group of people together is so uplifting.”
Joseph Holt‘s director of pubs, Mark Norbury, said of the scheme: “We are a family business with very strong roots in the communities where our pubs are located. The Get Together Club perfectly reflects Joseph Holt’s values – our pubs are about much more than simply serving drinks. They are welcoming spaces where people can come together, socialise, build friendships, and support one another.
“We are incredibly proud of what Sonia and her fellow volunteers have achieved: creating a vital source of support for those who need it, while also providing a warm, uplifting environment where everyone feels welcome.” Hear, hear.
Joseph Holt continues to extend that homegrown, family-run and community-driven ethos across their pubs, and we sincerely hope we get to more stuff like this popping up at their various wonderful sites across the boroughs.
Emily Sergeant -
30th January 2025 
