Whether you’re looking for family-friendly craft activities, tranquil Sunday roasts or late-night Latin samba parties, Manchester’s bars, restaurants and parks collectively provide another diverse series of unmissable events across four days of blissful springtime relaxation.
Here are some of the best things to do over the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend.
Stretching the Bank Holiday frivolity across five days, Albert Schloss invites guests to revel in a range of Easter specials, including a lamb, brie and jam challah sandwich from Cook Haus, Good Friday Fish ‘n’ Frites, Haus-baked Hot Cross Buns with Bailey’s frosting and a German Bier-Braised Lamb Shank Sunday Roast alongside the usual Sunday Service Menu. Alongside the irresistible Easter menu, Schloss hosts a run of customarily debauched evening parties throughout the schedule, including Friday Frolich, Pleasure Palace, Sunday Service and Back to Mein.
Following last year’s enormously successful inaugural instalment, free all-day music festival Manifest returns to The Oast House courtyard with live music from talented local artists spanning soul, pop, rock, disco, blues and funk, regular DJ intervals, a variety of delicious street food stalls and a steady stream of beer, wine, cocktails and more.
No ticket needed – just turn up and take it all in.
Alongside a brand new spring menu which features Mrs Kirkham’s Cheese Doughnuts, Smoked Cod’s Roe & Potato Skins, Swaledale Lamb Belly, Pool Hullock Broccoli & Wild Garlic and more, Ancoats’ historic gastropub serves a refined yet decadent roast dinner throughout Easter Sunday. For starters – ‘Tops’ – diners can enjoy Cinderwood Market Pickled Vegetables or something from the ‘Smalls’ menu, such as ‘Mussels, Trotter, Cider & Lovage’, before a choice of Butter Roasted Cinderwood Celeriac, Roasted Fore Rib of Beef or Swaledale Leg of Lamb with all the trimmings for a main course.
As well as a Family Silent Disco and Pop-up Market, Tatton Park’s generous Easter programme includes their season-long Garden Trail based on the children’s classic, The Tiger Who Came to Tea. Mapped throughout the park’s idyllic spring gardens, the trail encourages kids to explore and engage with nature, the great outdoors and the story of everyone’s favourite furry feline. Throughout Easter Bank Holiday Weekend, little ones on the trail will receive their own chocolate treat.
In addition to a thrilling array of family-friendly entertainment including theme park rides, face-painting and craft activities, as well as the opportunity to ride a heritage steam train through the Irwell Valley, everyone’s favourite mischievous bob-tailed bunny makes a warren of Bury Transport Museum throughout Easter Weekend, greeting and entertaining visitors at regular intervals during both days at no extra cost to admission.
Featuring cutting-edge research, art installations, AI robots and more, world-first exhibition Turn It Up: The Power of Music invites visitors of all ages to spend the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend uncovering the secrets behind music’s seemingly magical grip on the human imagination, with specially commissioned interactive art, intriguing objects, personal stories, innovative technology and immersive activities including a musical mirror and a ‘digital playground’.
For a Bank Holiday spent in a salsa beneath confetti cannons or doing the limbo under shot sticks, Revolucion de Cuba hosts a festive fiesta on Easter Sunday which features live music, Latin tunes and a pile of late-night Rumtinis.
Free and family-friendly, NOMA’s Big Spring Thing invites Mancunians of all ages to a day of Easter activities, live music and creative crafts in the central square of North Manchester’s newest neighbourhood. Featuring seed bomb and kite-making classes, performances from talented local musicians, the Plant NOMA Easter Egg Hunt and incredible food from Mira, Sadler’s Cat and New Century Hall, the springtime soirée provides the perfect alternative Easter Sunday for families across the city.
With a Cadbury’s Creme Egg promised to every successful participant, Affleck’s egg hunt tasks visitors with solving seven head-scratching clues spread across their three labyrinthine floors, with each egg containing one letter of an eventual secret password which unlocks the gooey prize.
To take part, just head to the Tib Street or Oldham Street entrance and grab a treasure hunt sheet.
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Thu 6 Apr 2023
As well as all their usual unmissable offers – including Happy Hour from 4-7pm daily and a 14” pizza for £7.77 from 12-4pm on weekdays – Nell’s at Kampus celebrates Easter Weekend with brand new cocktails, a one-off ‘Spring Fling’ pizza slice, nightly tunes from local DJs including DJ Aaron Javan, Pops Roberts and Scapa, and the launch of HOT TAKE – the new Saturday night event featuring their weekend happy hour, with £6 cocktails and £2.50 shots available every Friday and Saturday, all night from 8pm.