Just like every year, Manchester is getting ready to welcome around 80,000 new and returning students to our city over these next few weeks.
Although, the student experience is set to be a very different one amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
With nightclubs still closed and strict social distancing measures in place in bars – as well as the new rule of six and a 10pm curfew announced by the government – this means that usual bar crawls and club nights are out of the question.
Luckily, there’s still plenty of offers, deals and COVID-safe / virtual events either already happening, or set to take place in and around the city centre which are all intent on helping the iconic student adventure thrive despite the circumstances.
From discounted drinks deals, to virtual bingo events, student shopping weeks and even money-off gym memberships, there’s a lot going on in the rainy city that you won’t want to miss.
ADVERTISEMENT
If you’re going to be a student anywhere in 2020, you’ve made a good choice in picking Manchester.
This is your ultimate student guide to the city.
ADVERTISEMENT
___
Student Shopping Week
Trafford Centre
Trafford Centre
intu Trafford Centre’s annual Student Shopping Week is back.
ADVERTISEMENT
More than 50 stores, restaurants and leisure venues are getting involved and students will be able to take advantage of some amazing deals and exclusive offers, with up to 50% off some brands.
The popular shopping mall has hosted a huge student night for the past eight years, but in 2020, this will be extended to a full week and it means that students can choose a time to visit that is convenient to them, which will in turn help to manage the number of visitors in the centre and maintain social distancing.
Student Shopping Week is taking place from 28th September – 4th October and you can find out more of what’s on offer here.
___
‘Fresh Deals for Freshers’
Printworks
ADVERTISEMENT
Printworks
The Printworks is ready to welcome students to the city in the safest way possible.
As Manchester’s number one entertainment complex in the heart of the city centre, the Printworks has a whole host of deals and discounts to suit the needs of every student and help you kick-start freshers in style.
There’s over nineteen venues to splash your student loan on, including food, drink and leisure.
Together with Southern Comfort, Schuh and Unihomes, Bongo’s Bingo is bringing the party from the comfort of your halls or student house this year with Freshers Goes Virtual.
Students will be able to tune in to the crazy three-hour live stream on an unprecedented scale.
Now, Joel Corry joins Clean Bandit – both UK chart No.1 artists debuting brand new mixes for the stream – at what is set to be a wild evening of mayhem and magic, with stream host Jonny Bongo keeping it very much unreal and where fabulous prizes can be won.
Bongo’s Bingo Freshers Goes Virtual is taking place on 1st October 2020 at 8pm.
Ever-popular Wakefield Street hangout Brickhouse Social has already got plenty going on this month.
Students arriving in the city can make the most of free games of pool, 25% off food seven days a week – and 50% off food on Mondays only – £2.50 pints and vodka mixers, £2 shots, £1 coffee, four for £10 jagerbombs and 2-4-1 pizza.
ADVERTISEMENT
What more could you want? All you need to do is show your Student ID to be eligible.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken experts Yard & Coop are offering something a little different for students in Manchester this year.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Mates Rates card is arriving in the rainy city, meaning those dining in the Manchester restaurant can now get 20% off the entire bill on Sunday-Thursday. Not only that, but they’re also giving away a free pint of Yard Pilsner when you sign up for Mates Rates with no strings attached.
All you have to do fill in the form on the Yard & Coop website and then you’ll receive an email with a voucher.
Weird & Wonderful is bringing its student-focused bottomless brunch to Revolution Deansgate Locks.
With a signature soundtrack of Disco / Party / Hip Hop tunes, an endless selection of drinks – from Aperol Spritz, Pornstar Martinis and Prosecco, to Amstel and Heineken – and a wide array of mouth-watering food options, this is bound to be 90 minutes of bottomless fun.
There’s multiple events going on from 4th October right through to 6th December and you can grab your tickets starting at £25 per person now.
We’re going to make sure we keep updating this list with any more unmissable offers that we see as the weeks go on, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled.
Don’t forget to check back for all the latest.
What's On
Inspiring new 360° immersive David Bowie experience to open in Manchester
Emily Sergeant
Music lovers will get a glimpse inside the mind of a creative genius when a new immersive experience opens later this year.
Factory International has this week announced its programme of events for the upcoming autumn-winter season, and by far one of the stand-outs on the list has to be the return of Lightroom for a new 360° experience called David Bowie: You’re Not Alone – which is set to immerse audiences in the iconic performances and creative mind of one of the world’s most visionary and influential artists.
Bringing together a wealth of visual material from a wide range of sources, the experience combines rare performance footage, photography, drawings, lyrics, personal notes, and audio recordings from the late Bowie himself.
You’re Not Alone will showcase some of Bowie’s landmark performances that redefined popular culture, using a mix of iconic, rarely seen, and even never-before-exhibited material.
Selected from thousands of hours of film in the vaults of the David Bowie Archive in New York, you can expect to see everything from Space Oddity and Diamond Dogs, through to Heroes, Black Star, and more.
Each track has been newly reconfigured by multiple Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer, Gareth Fry, to utilise Lightroom’s specialised spatial audio system.
The 360° experience is set to be both a multimedia spectacle and an intimate self-portrait in one, giving audiences a unique insight into Bowie’s perspective on the subjects that were most important to him, like theatricality, spirituality, songwriting, and the transformative power of creativity.
David Bowie: You’re Not Alone is being made in close collaboration with, and has been authorised by, the David Bowie Estate.
It’ll run at Aviva Studios from 8 December 2026 through to 10 January 2027.
Featured Image – Supplied
What's On
You can pick your own fresh fruit from the fields of a family-run farm near Manchester this summer
Emily Sergeant
Just over the border into Warrington, you’ll find the perfect place to pick your own fresh fruit this summer.
We’re talking miles and miles (and miles) of strawberries.
This is Kenyon Hall Farm – a farm in Croft that has been worked by the same family since around 1500, and although it was originally considered a ‘mixed farm’, it has gone from strength to strength over the years, transforming from a traditional agricultural property into one of the UK’s top award-winning farm shops and tourism destinations.
Current owners Tod and Barbara took over the farm in 1978, and the couple, alongside their two sons James and Simon, as well as their partners and dozens of other full-time and seasonal staff, have turned it into a place that families travel from far and wide to visit.
Popular for its ever-expanding pumpkin patch experience in the autumn, its Easter egg hunts in the spring, and its on-site cafe and farm shop, Kenyon Hall Farm is no longer the ‘sleepy’ arable farm that Tod and Barbara once inherited, it’s now a cultural gem in the Croft community that exceeds 500-acres.
It’s pick-your-own strawberry season at Kenyon Hall Farm / Credit: The Manc Group
But there’s one stunning ‘season’ at Kenyon Hall Farm that we just have to shout about… and that’s strawberry season.
Or, should we say, pick-your-own fresh fruit season instead, as not only are there miles and miles of strawberry fields to roam free in – which open from the start of summer in June – but as the season goes on, there’s also raspberries, blackcurrants, potatoes, onions, and loads more to choose from too.
Strawberries have been growing at Kenyon Hall Farm for nearly 50 years now, and used to be its main attraction, often being inundated with locals when it opened for just six-weeks a year – but then, back 2019, they decided to introduce special strawberry growing tunnels, meaning they could extend opening times until the end of August, all while making the experience less weather-dependent.
When 2020 rolled around and the COVID-19 pandemic hit, ticketing was introduced in order to keep everyone safe and help staff manage visitor demand once the fruit fields reopened.
But as this proved to work so well, it’s a system that has remained in place ever since.
This means that, especially for strawberry picking, you need to head online and book your ticket in advance, as staff really don’t want anyone to leave disappointed if they have to turn people away.
There’s so much seasonal produce in the on-site cafe and farm shop too / Credit: The Manc Group
And once you’re done frolicking in the fruit fields, you can then head into the cafe afterwards to try some seasonal specials like cream teas with homemade strawberry jam, or french toast with strawberry compote and Biscoff crumb, all washed down with strawberry matchas made with homemade syrup.
Make sure to pop into the farm shop before you leave too and stock up on all the seasonal produce and gifts you could ever need – including homemade strawberry jams, gins, and more.
Strawberry season has now started at Kenyon Hall Farm, and you can book your tickets online for £5.95 – £6.95 per person, with spaces released up to 24–48 hours ahead of time.
Included in your ticket price is a punnet to fill, and anything else you pick is paid for by weight on the way out.
The Manc -
23rd September 2020 
