The best: International Women’s Day events around Greater Manchester in 2024

On Sat 9 Mar, Manchester’s annual Walk for Women march takes over the city centre streets for a vibrant, family-friendly celebration of trailblazing women from all backgrounds who continue to break barriers and shatter glass ceilings across countless fields in the pursuit of an inclusive, accessible future.

Attendees are encouraged to bring their own instruments for banging and clanging while they chant, cheer, sing along to musical performances and create their own banners to honour the women in their lives and around the world.

Taking place across three venues for the first time, GRUB’s empowerment extravaganza Lass Fest returns with its biggest programme yet to celebrate the incredible women of Manchester and beyond.

Running from Thu 7 – Sun 10 Mar, Lass Fest 2024 offers a dizzying array of workshops, events, films, comedy, music, art and more, including a pub quiz, a womanhood-inspired painting session and even a special cabaret performance from Ember & The Vixens, as well as a wide selection of food available from local female-owned street food businesses.

Check out the full programme below.

Taking place from 10.30am at HOME on Fri 8 Mar, peer support group Mothers Who Make host a special celebratory session for IWD 2024, during which ‘Mother Makers’ – professional or passionate artists, writers, dancers, actors, musicians and filmmakers – gather for a day of informal networking, creative exchange and child-friendly activities.

Visitors can drop by whenever, but you’ll need to book a free ticket via the link below.

Created in collaboration with Manchester Metropolitan University and the North West Business Leadership Team, She Leads For Legacy hosts an illuminating, inspiring and profoundly insightful evening dedicated to exploring and dismantling barriers to inclusion for Black women in the workplace.

Featuring an illustrious line-up of guest speakers including Dr. Iwi Ugbiagbe-Green, Prof. Julia Rouse, Dr. Faye Bruce and others, the one-off International Women’s Day event seeks to amplify valuable dialogue and develop strategies to establish inclusive, liberated workplaces through discussions, interactive activities and expert-led sessions in a ‘transformative’ night of innovation and diversity.

This year, Levenshulme’s favourite cycle cafe Station South is partnering with Friends of Cringle Park, Grounded MCR, Bee Pedal Ready and Wildcats Football Club to host an afternoon of free, family-friendly fun in the great outdoors, from girls’ football sessions and drumming workshops to women-only bike training, rides around the park and plenty of coffee and cake.

Setting off from outside The Midland at 6pm on Fri 8 Mar, New Manchester Walks celebrates International Women’s Day with a free themed tour in tribute to our city’s most formidable, influential women throughout history, including Annie Horniman, Elizabeth Gaskell, Ellen Wilkinson, Sylvia Pankhurst and many more.

Staged against the conceptual backdrop of their unmissable Infamous exhibition on Britain and China, The Portico Library presents a captivating discussion on ‘international women’ with curator Iris Yau and Circle Steele, CEO of the Wai Yin Society, a local charity committed to challenging discrimination by providing diverse and versatile services to ethnic minority groups.

For something uniquely entertaining this International Women’s Day, head down to 235 Deansgate and spend the day with Table Tennis England in the Great Northern Ping Hub.

Parents and kids alike are invited to stop by and enjoy a morning of table tennis fun with double Olympian and former England No. 1 Andrea Holt, before moving to Central Library for an afternoon of discussion and knowledge-sharing between players, coaches and enthusiasts.