Whether it’s football-fuelled flag-painting, spellbinding outdoor theatre, absorbing museum craft sessions or an afternoon building the LEGO creation of your dreams, you can make new and unique memories for the whole family with an unforgettable day out at a variety of Manchester’s best galleries, aquariums, theatres and play spaces this summer.
Here are some of the best family days out around Manchester this summer.
For more family summer inspiration, check out our guide to the best day trips within driving distance of Manchester.
This August, Manchester Museum hosts a line-up of free creative activities inspired by their ongoing environmental exhibition, Wild. Each week, families with children aged 7 and above can use different art forms to explore the wonder of our natural world, with sessions including paper globe mobile-making, plasticine painting, collaging and more.
Find out more below.
Running every weekend throughout the Euros, the National Football Museum’s free drop-in craft session encourages visitors to create their own flags, taking inspiration from existing patterns to express their personality and imaginative flair with vibrant colour combinations and creative new designs, before hanging up their motif in the community goal net.
Wave Your Flag is free for visitors, and will take place every weekend in the Pitch Gallery between 11am and 3pm.
Open daily through the school holidays and beyond, Legoland Manchester invites families into a vibrant, absorbing world of endless wonder with everyone’s favourite building blocks at TraffordCity.
From the Ninjago City Adventure and a 1.5 million-brick Miniland to earthquake simulators, build-your-own-racecar thrills and even a 4D Cinema, creative kids and nostalgic parents can spend a memorable day exploring the limits of their imagination with tickets available in a range of combinations and multiple attraction passes.
Running throughout summer and continuing all year, SEALife Manchester presents a bucket-list opportunity to feed its resident turtles Ernie and Cammy in an awe-inspiring VIP experience for aquatic enthusiasts aged 8 and above.
Join a member of the animal care team and enjoy the lunch of a lifetime while learning about Manchester’s only giant green sea turtles before exploring the rest of the aquarium.
Z-arts invites you to the wondrous, interactive narrative experience The 100 Story Hotel, a fun-filled fictional world of magical stories and engaging play for families with children aged 1-8.
Devised in partnership with multi-award-winning bestselling author and illustrator Rob Biddulph alongside Discover Story Centre, The 100 Story Hotel offers families the chance become guests at this rather unusual establishment where children can explore their imagination through the world of Rob Biddulph’s books. Children and grown-ups alike can explore its countless secrets and meet its wild assortment of characters, from lions and tigers to dinosaurs and sausage dogs, as the guests and staff enlist your help to unpick the clues to find a story that’s mysteriously gone missing.
After a roaring success last year, Explore@RNCM returns to the North’s most decorated music institute for 2024 with a family-friendly extravaganza packed with live performances, festival food, face-painting and creative hands-on workshops for children and grown-ups of all ages.
Commencing at 12pm, the free afternoon of entertainment celebrates the irrepressible spirit of Manchester’s performing arts community with a summer party in the heart of the city.
Book your free tickets below.
Promising ‘laughter, thrills and a touch of mischief’, Hobgoblin theatre company transforms Longford Park into the enchanting Sherwood Forest for a unique adventure with Robin Hood and his band of merry yet hapless outlaws.
Featuring rousing songs, audience participation and fast-paced fun, Hobgoblin’s three actors lead a lively, engaging and accessible show which follows the mischievous archer as he attempts to outwit the nefarious Sheriff of Nottingham while stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
This Summer, everyone’s favourite heeler and his friends invite families with children of all ages to experience a magical adaptation of the Emmy Award-winning TV series, as Bluey and Bingo pull out all their mischievous tricks and fun-filled games to get Dad off his bean bag in a wondrous caper featuring an original story, inventive puppetry and brand new music.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Fri 21 Jun 2024
From Sat 20 Jul to Sun 1 Sep, visitors to the Science and Industry Museum can enjoy a dizzying variety of hands-on entertainment, live science shows and fascinating installations without spending a penny.
In the interactive Experiment gallery, families can explore the mind-bending magic of science brought to life with glow-in-the-dark art, thermal camera heat vision, shadow walls and more, before heading to the Textiles Gallery and Revolution Manchester to learn about the machines and people which made Manchester the first industrial city, and its proud history of world-changing ideas.
Open daily throughout the holidays, Power Up invites parents and children to try out hundreds of iconic video game titles across over 160 consoles, from first-generation 80s arcade machines to cutting-edge VR headsets.
Elsewhere, the museum hosts a range of pop-up events and activities, including a celebration of Manchester Pride which honours LGBTQ+ stories in the Conversation Space display from Thu 22-Wed 28 Aug.
Visitors can also check out the brand new exhibition Injecting Hope: The Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine, which celebrates the Herculean efforts of scientists around the globe who worked tirelessly to end the pandemic, with inspirational stories of resolve and collaboration as told through artwork, video and significant objects from the initiative.