October is well under way now and there’s plenty to be getting up to in Manchester.
If you’re stuck for something to do, then this is your go-to guide for what’s on and what’s happening in the city of Manchester and beyond this week.
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 and socially-distanced in order to keep you as safe as possible during these trying times.
Whatever you fancy doing though, there’s certainly no shortage of choice in our region.
The pumpkins are still here, in case you missed them.
If you’re looking to get in the mood for Halloween early, but keep things a little on the cheaper side this week, then you need look no further than up above in the city centre as the annual decorative pumpkin lanterns are back once again and they’re here all month.
Going on a little tour to see the lanterns in the trees in St Ann’s Square, Market Street and beyond is the perfect activity for all the family, easy to plan and great for pictures.
Scare City officially kicked off last week and it’s not for the faint hearted.
This immersive drive-in cinema event – organised by Park N Party – sees terrifying performers swarming on unsuspecting viewers’ during each evening of car park entertainment at Event City in Trafford.
Horror flicks for all film fans will be showing throughout the month of October.
From the comfort of your own car this week, you can watch films including Insidious, Get Out, and The Blaire Witch Project for the brave, and also Frankenweenie, Goosebumps, and Beetlejuice if you’d rather keep your wits about you.
Tickets are priced at £35 per vehicle.
Food and drink is also available to purchase on site, and will be served and distributed in compliance with COVID-19 safety precautions.
You can reserve your spot at Scare City online now via Eventbrite.
This October, you can take your little monsters to LEGOLAND Discovery Centre at Barton Square and get into the spirit at the ultimate Halloween party, with so many “fang-tastic activities” and “spook-tacular activities”, plus access to two rides, LEGO build & play zones, and a 4D cinema at the ultimate indoor LEGO playground.
All of this COVID-safe fun is included within the price of an admission ticket too.
The fun doesn’t stop at intu Trafford Centre, as Ascarium is arriving at SEA LIFE Manchester once again this year and it’s an experience like no other.
You are invited to follow the immersive trail through the site – which will adhere to all necessary COVID-19 safety measures – to find missing potion ingredients hidden throughout displays of the creepiest creatures of the deep and once you’ve spotted all of the missing items, see if you can solve the riddle at the end of the trail to complete the spell and claim your free Cadbury reward for your Halloween bravery.
Totally Gruesome is a 100% socially distanced and COVID-safe Halloween attraction aimed at Primary School-aged children in Ashton-under-Lyne..
In your pre-booked time slot, you’ll get five minutes to spend in each of the 10 themed rooms – which range from ‘Spiders Cave’ and ‘Clown Graveyard’, to ‘Egyptian Tomb’ and ‘Witches Forest’ – to crack the code. Follow the clues to uncover a letter of the alphabet in each themed room and once you have all the letters, you can then solve the anagram to be entered into the weekly sweetie prize draw.
It’s basically a kids version of break-out rooms, crossed with the crystal maze.
Tickets are priced at £7 each.
You can discover more information about the event and book your tickets here.
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Murder Mystery 2020
East Lancashire Railway, Bury
Saturday 17th October
Dining With Distinction
Fancy a bit of Poirot to get you in the mood for Halloween?
This week’s Murder Mystery 2020 theme at East Lancashire Railway in Bury is ‘Trouble at Tower Terrors’.
The description for the event reads: “They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky and one of them is also a killer. The residents of Terror Towers are out for revenge on the oldest and deadliest member of the clan and it’s up to you to dig up the evidence and discover who is the worst monster of all before the witching hour strikes.”
Tickets are priced at £75.
This includes a beautiful 2 1/3 hour steam train ride through the Irwell Valley, a welcome glass of fizz, a four course meal – with everything from Chorizo, Halloumi & Cucumber salad, to Raspberry & White Chocolate Meringue on the menu – followed by tea or coffee and after dinner chocolates, and of course award-winning Murder Mystery entertainment.
After something that isn’t so spooky and Halloween-themed this week?
The GM ‘Let’s Walk Festival’ is taking place in a completely COVID-safe and virtually this year, so no matter whether you’re a “stroller, roamer, shuffler, moocher or a marcher”, you’re welcome to join in with this two-week-long festival.
It’s a great opportunity to set yourself (or your family) a walking goal and discover the simple joys and benefits of walking with an option to raise money for local causes too.
You can find out more information and register onto the event here.
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Escape to Freight Island
Depot Mayfield
Thursday 15th, Friday 16th, Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th October
Escape to Freight Island
There’s plenty going on at Escape to Freight Island this week.
If you haven’t had chance to make your way down to Manchester’s newest social experience and one of the hottest tickets in town yet – which is housed at Depot Mayfield in the heart of the city centre – then this is definitely a good week to make that happen.
On the agenda this extended weekend is regular act Reform Radio Presents on Thursday, a special showing by Band on the Wall Presents on Friday – with exciting acts yet to be announced – Mr. Scruff, MC Kwasi, Annabel Fraser, and Lee Andrews taking over for 10 hours on Saturday, and finally From Manchester With Love taking to the stage on Sunday.
Tickets to all events must be booked in advance.
You can books yours and find more information about social distancing / COVID-safe precautions here.
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Higher Ground
Ducie Street Warehouse, Northern Quarter
Friday 16th & Saturday 17th October
Higher Ground x Ducie Street Warehouse
Higher Ground is taking over Ducie Street Warehouse for the full month of October.
The innovative pop-up restaurant – which prides itself on offering dishes with the best North West ingredients, Manchester brewed beer and natural wine – began its residency at the popular Northern Quarter hangout at at the start of the month, where an incredible five-course sharing menu will be served and an optional wine pairing, consisting of three glasses is available to add-on.
Tickets at £45 per head and prepaid reservations must be made for party sizes of two – six people.
The Manchester charity that’s championing the community one step at a time
Thomas Melia
There’s a Manchester-based charity which is helping uplift and champion communities throughout the city centre and wider Greater Manchester region.
Us Mancs certainly know a thing or two about community, whether it’s our influential music scene, football clubs, our hospitality scene and so on, but Forever Manchester takes this to the next level.
This charity has been consistently funding and supporting community initiatives throughout Greater Manchester by helping people achieve the extraordinary, all while maintaining plenty of local pride.
Forever Manchester was born from a mission to support the people and places that make Greater Manchester magic, and is all about making sure the community is at the forefront of everything they do.
Credit: Forever Manchester
The community-first charity has invested over £65 million into local communities and awarded £517,968 to over 100 different community groups.
This isn’t a new charity either, Forever Manchester has been deep in our city’s culture for quite some time since launching in 1989, most notably commissioning local poet Tony Walsh’s ‘This is the Place’.
The piece was originally published in 2012 before finding a very special place in our hearts back in 2017 when Walsh performed the poem at a vigil for the Manchester Arena attack.
This love letter to Manchester has not only gone on to become a part of the city’s history but also reaffirmed this organisation’s place throughout communities in the region.
Credit: Supplied
Now, the community-minded charity is ready to make a mark in 2025 with a whole host of initiatives, including a Forever Manchester lottery, pub quizzes, comedy nights and disco bingo.
Anyone looking to find out more information about this community-first charity and see some examples of the work it does can visit Forever Manchester’s official website.
Remember, this is a city that looks after its own – that’s the kind of energy we want to see you keeping up all year long.
And, if you have a soft spot for a tote bag or wall art prints, look no further than Forever Manchester’s shop, where every purchase directly contributes to community activities in Greater Manchester HERE.
Billie Eilish at Co-op Live, Manchester – tickets, times, setlist and more for UK tour
Thomas Melia
Billie Eilish is ready to take over Co-op Live for four nights of tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, belly-aching hits right here in Manchester.
Ms. ‘Ocean Eyes’ herself is coming to Manchester this month, and we’re on hand with all the info you need so you don’t have to ‘Guess’ anything on the day of your show.
Billie Eilish has cemented her position in the music industry as one of the leading hitmakers, and at only 23 years old, this artist has won nine Grammy Awards and racked up three UK number-one singles.
The American star has been grafting since her early teens, dropping her first ever EP, don’t smile at me, in 2017 at only 16 years old and has reached height after height ever since.
Billie Eilish gig guide
Billie Eilish is playing at Co-op Live in Manchester on 19, 20, 22 and 23 July.Credit: Press shot (supplied)
Her latest album ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’, which is also the name of the tour, is Eilish’s third studio album and it’s stacked with bangers like ‘Birds of a Feather’, ‘Lunch’ and ‘Wildflower’, just to name a few.
Are there tickets left for Billie Eilish tickets in Manchester?
Anyone after tickets to any of the upcoming Billie Eilish gigs in Manchester might be in for a ‘not-so-lovely’ surprise, as you can expect, as most general tickets are sold out.
However, anyone who’s missed out on tickets for Billie’s FOUR-gig run in Manchester can still take a look at a variety of premium ticket packages.
You can grab your ‘Birds of a Feather’ and a ticket or two for the Saturday, 19 July show HERE.
Pack your ‘Lunch’ and put on your best outfit because there are exclusive tickets for the Sunday, 20 July gig HERE.
Your friends will be calling you ‘The Greatest’ when you let them know about the premium tickets still left for Tuesday, 22 July right HERE.
Finally, grab ‘L’amour De Ma Vie’ and sing your heart out with a range of hospitality tickets to choose from on Wednesday, 23 July HERE. And breathe…
Billie Eilish setlist
Chihiro
Lunch
NDA
Therefore I Am
Wildflower
when the party’s over
The Diner
ilomilo
bad guy
The Greatest
Your Power
Skinny
TV
bury a friend
Oxytocin
Guess
everything i wanted
lovely / Blue / ocean eyes (Medley)
L’amour De Ma Vie
What Was I Made For?
Happier Than Ever
Birds of a Feather
What are the stage times for Billie Eilish in Manchester?
Co-op Live has a strict curfew of 11pm, meaning concertgoers can be safe knowing ‘when the party’s over’ it won’t be well into the early hours.
Doors for ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft’ tour are scheduled for 6pm with support acts Syd and Magdalena Bay on hand to soundtrack your evening and leave you feeling ‘Happier Than Ever’ before Billie at 8pm.
The first act, Syd, is known for co-founding influential R’n’B band, The Internet (big fans, by the way), and has just dropped a new solo single ‘Die For This’ ahead of her Billie Eilish tour stint.
How to get to Co-op Live
Tram
For those of you heading to Co-op Live, you’ll be glad to know 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 until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.
The ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour’ will mark Billie Eilish’s first ever Co-op Live appearance.Credit: William Drumm (supplied)
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,e 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 vary, obviously:
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 via the Beryl app, with riders able to locate, unlock, get to their destination and then safely lock up the bike 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.
Emily Sergeant -
9th October 2020 
