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Autumn

Creative Tourist

Looking for things to do in Autumn in Manchester and the North? From new exhibitions and live music to great food, drink and everything in between, if you’re after something interesting to do, look no further.

Our top picks

Manchester Literature Festival 2025

Manchester Literature Festival at Contact Theatre, Manchester and online, Until 26 October 2025, From £8.00 - Book now

Manchester Literature Festival presents inspiring live literature and spoken word from international writers and home-grown talent. MLF18 runs from 6 to 21 October at venues around the city, presenting 80-odd events including brand-new special commissions.

Find out more

Find out more

Seasonal Guides

The Jungle Book at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Open Air Theatre in Manchester and the North

Open air theatre shows are happening across the north over the next few months – we’ve collated our top picks into a neat guide for you.

Helen Chadwick posing with a sculpture called Piss Flowers taken during the exhibition Helen Chadwick: Effluvia, held at the Serpentine Gallery, London, in 1994
Cultural Calendar 2025

Our editors’ biannually updated list of some of the best-looking arts and cultural events in Manchester and the North in 2025.
Festival-goers at Green Island
Festivals

Here’s our guide to the best summer festivals with experiences taking place in a field or on the streets near you.
Summer Holidays: the best things to do with kids
Summer Holidays: the best things to do with kids

Check out our definitive and regularly updated guide of things to do with the family over the summer holidays.
Outdoor Art in the North

Our guide to the North’s outdoor art, which has a special relationship to community, cultural heritage and the landscape it’s situated in.
Outdoor Activities

Get out and about with our guide to interesting, unusual and distinctly cultural outdoor events and outdoor activities.
FaleSaSacred House
Visual Arts at MIF25

From indigenous wisdom in paint and performance to immersive sound installations, MIF25 returns with a unique visual arts programme.

Destinations

Image by Jonathan Schofield.
Spotlight on

Walking Tours in Manchester by Jonathan Schofield

Presenting the best walking tours in Manchester for history buffs, culture enthusiasts, and those looking to scratch beneath the surface of the city.

Take me there

Culture Guides

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.

Literature Events in the North

The autumn leaves might be falling already, but the harvest is plentiful as the live literature scene gets back into the swing of things after a summer break...

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.