In what is undeniably the stuff of dreams for cheese lovers, you can take part in a “cheese crawl” around Manchester city centre next month.
Manchester is city packed with culture.
But if you don’t fancy seeing the sights through one of the more typical tours, 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.
Taking place from 12pm-3pm every Saturday beginning 1st May, the pun-filled description for The Manchester Cheese Crawl reads: The event description reads: “Calling all curd nerds and turophiles, Manchester’s finest cheeses are being wrapped up into a two-hour walking tour.
“The crawl is two hours of non stop in-curd-edible action.
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“It will be packed full of Manchester’s brie-liant cheeses, with very mature fun facts, and the chance to heckle your quizmaster with your favourite cheese puns that will have your group crumbling faster than a Wensleydale.
“Meanwhile you feta believe you’ll learn a bit about cheese making, and be introduced to some cheese mongers and shops you just camembert to stay away from”.
Flickr | Northern Soul Grilled Cheese
The Manchester Cheese Crawl starts off in St Ann’s Square, wanders across the city, and ends up in the Northern Quarter, all while giving you the chance to try the finest cheeses Manchester has to offer along the way.
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The first crawl takes place on Saturday 1st May, and events will then run until 25th September.
Tickets cost just £25 each and include cheese samples, optional bread and crackers, and some red wine to complement.
A ‘disco for grown ups’ party is coming to Manchester this year
Thomas Melia
A disco party for ‘grown ups’, centred around 70s, 80s and 90s music, is making its way to Manchester this year.
The wildly popular Discos for Grown Ups will be heading to town in May, encouraging some serious boogie action with its playlist of soul, disco, pop and dancefloor from across the decades.
The night out has been created for those who feel ‘too old to go clubbing, but still love to dance’, with people your own age, and with a sensibly early finish time.
When the night is still young but you might not be, you can let loose under a light and laser show featuring the fabulous Discos for Grown Ups stage dancers.
Whether you’re a ‘Material Girl’ who craves the spotlight or or a shy dancer who comes out of their shell after catching a case of ‘Night Fever’, this night will be spoiling you with its array of tracks.
Credit: Supplied
Discos for Grown Ups was founded by Simon Stanford after discovering there was nowhere for a ‘grown up’ to go that played the music he loved.
Simon Stanford from Discos for Grown Ups says: “We are really looking forward to bringing our Discos for Grown Ups 70’s 80’s 90’s Disco Party back to the O2 Ritz Manchester this year.
“Our first show was an incredible night of dancing and sold out very quickly, so we can’t wait to bring our full production with dancers, lights and lasers back – it’s going to be another amazing night of boogie!”
Expect a night of fun-filled dancefloor bangers spanning three golden decades of music.Credit: Supplied
Five beautiful blossom filled walks to try this spring in and around Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
Greater Manchester is full of wonderful walks and as we race headlong into spring, let’s make the most of those gorgeous blossom trees while we can.
It’s blossom season! No, not the iconic Stockport five-piece you can never get enough of – it’s that time of year when the skies get a little more colourful thanks to those lovely blossom trees.
Manchester is filled with fun things to do all year round, but now the weather is starting to hit double digits again, what better way to enjoy it than to go for a nice walk admiring nature?
If one of 2024’s biggest films was anything to go off, it’s safe to say that “green goes well with pink”, so get your walking boots on and go exploring.
Five of the best spring walks in and around Manchester
1. Fletcher Moss Gardens – Didsbury
A 20-minute drive from the city centre, Fletcher Moss Park has some stunning scenery and it’s nestled in the lovely suburb of Didsbury.
This park has its own botanical gardens and tennis courts, as well as a glorious array of cherry blossom trees, this needs adding to your Manchester walks list.
If the spring weather isn’t warming up the way you’d like it to, you can stop off at the on-site truck providing walkers with food, treats and coffees with a selection of syrups that just sweeten the deal.
Spanning over 600 acres, this park has its own boating lake, lots of prime picnic spots and a cafe for a hot drink and a pastry to pair with it.
If all is on your side, you might even catch a glimpse of that Manchester sun peering through the cherry blossom flowers hanging in the sky, lush.
3. Castlefield Viaduct – Castlefield
This next walk is a little bit different and one we’re sure you’re all familiar with because it’s not too far from the hustle and bustle, located in Castlefield.
Our next stroll also doubles as a National Trust site and we couldn’t be more grateful as each year the blossoms that appear around this trail get lovelier and lovelier each year.
This place is the best of both worlds, offering an urban walking route with potted planters, hedges and flower walls that are good for the mind and live music events over at Castlefield Bowl – which is pretty good for the soul too.
If we put the gearstick in reverse and park our cars back in Didsbury for the day, just down the road from the famous Fletcher Moss Park is the equally beautiful Parsonage Gardens, which is just as colourful come the springtime in Greater Manchester.
Not to be confused with small municipal green space located just off Deansgate in the city centre, though they do share a name, these gardens are operated by The Didsbury Parsonage Trust which looks after the Grade II-listed building on its premises and offers a nature-filled community hub to locals.
Walk through the archway located not too far from the start of the Didsbury Dozen and follow it round to find a wonderful little floral escape that has won gold in the annual RHS competitions multiple times and is the perfect length for a casual stroll.
As well as leading the way in terms of Christmas trails, Dunham Massey on the border of Altrincham and Cheshire knows a thing or two about spring walks too.
Alongside the park’s stunning manor house, there are plenty of green fields and blossom trees to get lost in, if you stay long enough you’ll forget the fact that Manchester is less than an hour away.
Being a National Trust property, there will be guides in the park to answer any queries about the park or manor that comes with it and of course a cosy little cafe where you can scoff a cake slab or two, delish.
So, this spring why not venture for a stroll into somewhere new in Greater Manchester while treating your eyes to some pretty blush pink views as we prepare for the summer ahead?
Emily Sergeant -
20th April 2021 
