It’s now officially back to school season and amongst all the chaos of freshers and dodgy weather, we’re sure many of you lot are keen on relieving some stress without blowing the bank.
From groovy jam nights at Factory International to free scran from Wasabi, here’s our rundown of the five best free things to do in Manchester this week…
Start the weekend’s festivities early at Factory International, with a cracking evening centred around a live, improvised jam session – inviting you to move freely through the space, see the creative process up close and engage directly with the artists throughout the night.
Four Greater Manchester based visual artists – Hippiezilla, Noelle, Sean and Ewan – are on hand to create live, reactive visual content using tools such as TouchDesigner and Resolume to a soundtrack by LSMarley.
With guidance from AV artists Noelle and Ewan, expect experimentations with sensor-based interactions, exploring how movement and touch can manipulate both sound and visuals in real time.
Wasabi, the UK’s leading Sushi and Bento brand, is cranking up the heat with its Flaming Korean Fire Chicken firetruck tour – and it’s rolling into St Ann’s Square this Friday.
The celebration marks the launch of Wasabi’s spiciest product yet with Mancs soon able to get their hands one of 1,000 free bowls of Flaming Korean Fire Chicken with rice.
After a stellar five years at Red Bank, GRUB is saying goodbye the best way they know how — with a three-day blowout of food, booze, music and memories from Thursday to Saturday 27th this week.
Expect a Big BOGOF Blowout with 2-for-1 cocktails, shooters and tacos, a 72-hour Happy Hour, and GRUB’s resident DJs going back-to-back as they clear the cellar.
This closing weekend marks the end of an era at Red Bank, but also the start of something exciting. Behind the scenes the lovely lot are already working on a brand new city centre home for GRUB, with more details to come very soon…
This Sunday, the Manchester Feminist Coalition is putting on an event space for those affected by misogyny within organising spaces to come together, hold each other, and build real solidarity across the city.
- Words:
- Rhiannon Ingle
- Published on:
- Tue 23 Sep 2025
Swing by CUPRA for this week’s Speakeasy Social – events designed to inspire, educate, and connect, with talks, Q&As, and networking sessions featuring pioneers across hospitality, music, fashion, and wellness.
Hosted by Matty White, this week’s expert panel features Spaces Director of Broadwick Live Natalie Lea, Founder of Square Fish Events Neil Lofthouse and CUPRA’s own Events and Communications head, Holly Williams.