Burnley Canal Festival

Shekina Rose, Families Editor

Visit now

Burnley Canal Festival

27 August 2023

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Burnley Canal Festival 2022
Book now

Enjoy a free, family event at the Burnley Canal Festival this summer, happening next-to and on the water at the newly refurbished Finsley Gate Wharf on Sunday 27 August. Experience Burnley’s unique canal-side heritage and celebrate the special things about Burnley that can sometimes be overlooked!

The festival will be a chance to get involved with lots of family-friendly and creative activities and make some special memories. Get hands on with interactive workshops such as paper flower making, botanical workshops, colouring stations, henna, free face-painting, screen-printing and monster creation (to name a few!). Families will also love the ‘Rag and Tag’ road show, a pop-up scrapstore, studio and stage which invites people of all ages to reuse, create and play!

Watch engaging live ‘walkabout’ performances, including Paris Bubbles, Mother Nature (who is on the hunt to pick up litter),  and the giant sloth! Tap your toes to an array of live music, from Bollywood and jazz to indie folk rock! Be transported along the canal on the water bus, canoes and Super Slow Way’s beautiful library boat, for those of you who love to read!

Younger canal-goers at the Festival might want to have a go at the Towpath Explorers Trail. The trail will take you on a real Burnley canal adventure, revealing some of the canal-side’s hidden and best kept secrets…  But where will you go? What will you find!?

After all that fun, take a moment to amble the Makers Market in the Mile Room, with unique works of art and crafts, fabrics, jewellery, food and drink and so much more to buy for yourself or to take away for someone else.

When you’re ready for a full-on sit down and some tasty food and drink, there’s loads of places available to quench your thirst and fill your tummy, with delicious ice cream, mouth-watering Indian street food and lots more.

Burnley Canal Festival is a fantastic chance for Burnley locals and visitors to get together and celebrate Burnley as a place as well as the arts and creativity thriving here. So for a free, fun day out, head on down to the Burnley Canal Festival at Finsley Gate Wharf, from 11am-5pm.

Where to go near Burnley Canal Festival

Kong's NQ
Manchester
Restaurant
Kong’s NQ

Kong’s isn’t like other chicken shops. This much-loved Northern Quarter restaurant is all about high-grade ingredients and expert preparation.

Castlefield
Restaurant
Trading Route

Trading Route serves up time-honoured Sunday grub, in a modern Manchester setting. Worth a visit for the expertly-curated soundtrack alone.

Side view of mixed race business colleagues sitting and watching presentation with audience and clapping hands
Theatre
Burnley Youth Theatre

Burnley Youth Theatre is a vibrant youth arts organisation based at our purpose built venue in Burnley, Pennine Lancashire.

Bar pub 3
Leeds
Restaurant
Arcadia Ale House

Arcadia Ale house is a sports bar located in the Headingly area of Leeds with a range of drinks offers throughout the week.

Restaurant
Leeds
Restaurant
Pasta Romagna

Pasta Romagna is a family owned, independent restaurant in the heart of the city centre. Bringing you homestyle Italian cuisine since 1982.

wine bar 2
Leeds
Restaurant
Farrands

Farrands is an independent bar located in the heart of Leeds city centre, specialising in a range of fine wine, beer and specialist cocktails.

Restaurant
Leeds
Shop
George and Joseph Cheesemongers

George and Joseph is Leeds’ only specialist cheesemongers, serving some of the city’s best cheese from its home in Chapel Allerton since 2013

Wine bar
Leeds
Restaurant
Wayward Wines

Selling natural wines since before it was cool (well, 2017), this tiny suburban wine house is so much more than just a bar.

Beer shop
Leeds
Shop
Caspar’s Bottle Shop

Independent craft beer and spirits den Caspars Bottle Shop is a quirky Chapel Allerton favourite that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Dry Dock
Leeds
Restaurant
Dry Dock

Dry Dock has carved out a reputation as a fixture for students and locals alike over the last thirty plus years

What's on: Families

Culture Guides

A busy image created using generative AI. The image depicts a man at the centre with grey hair and rosy cheeks, surrounding him are fairies that appear to be created in his own image with multiple limbs and unique bodily proportions. Around them are hundreds of vials, microscopes and dated scientific equipment.
Exhibitions

Across Manchester and Salford, exhibitions are thinking hard about how things are made – and how materials carry stories.

Theatre

Closer, riskier, more immediate. Our small-scale theatre picks stretch from unsettling fables about nationhood to the inner workings of a mind trying to hold itself together.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.

Fatoumata Diawara by Alun Be.
Music

This month’s live music picks move between ambitious new work, grassroots celebrations and a few memorable settings.

Food and Drink in the North

Spring has arrived, bringing with it al fresco dining and a rush of high-profile food and drink-related events in Manchester.

Emily Lloyd-Saini as Grace in Space and Harrie Hayes as Lieutenant Strong in Horrible Science
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.