Families across Greater Manchester are invited to celebrate the opening of Manchester’s newest city-centre urban park as Into the Wild, a free family nature festival, comes to St Catherine’s Wood on Fri 24 Jul.
Running from 11am – 6pm, the event marks the public opening of the newly restored woodland. Designed to help families reconnect with nature, Into the Wild is packed with free activities for all ages.
Follow the Archie and Irky Nature Trail, enjoy live steel pan music from Zola Steel Pan, get hands-on with nature-inspired crafts, create wildflower seed bombs, help build a giant bug hotel and join a woodland BioBlitz with Plant MCR to uncover the wildlife that calls St Catherine’s Wood home. Visitors can also enjoy a guided mindfulness walk with Moodswings, free face painting, delicious street food and ice cream throughout the day.
While all activities are free, advance booking is recommended for the BioBlitz workshop and the Moodswings mindfulness walk due to limited capacity. Free tickets can be booked online here.
The event marks the first opportunity for the public to experience St Catherine’s Wood, which has been transformed as part of the Victoria North regeneration programme into a welcoming urban park that aims to reconnect local communities with nature.
Featured image: Red Bank
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- Words:
- Bradley Lengden
- Published on:
- Fri 17 Jul 2026
