What's on near Chester Town Hall
Unity Theatre is once again hosting their anything but ordinary, outright bonkers festive production, Unity Christmas Cabaret.
From £7.00
Merry Manarchy welcomes holiday heartthrobs for a festive drag king cabaret – expect a ridiculously fabulous camped-out search for what Christmas is all about.
From £7.00
Yuki Kihara reframes Pacific imagery through Fa’afafine voices, creating lush, critical artworks that unsettle long-standing colonial assumptions.
Free entry
FACT’s new exhibition probes how our entanglement with AI is reshaping behaviour, identity and the fragile idea of human choice.
Free entry
Max Frisch’s darkly comic play The Fire Raisers arrives courtesy of new Manchester company We Merry Dancers in co-production with HER Productions.
From £15.00
Hailed “unmissable and unforgettable” by Rolling Stone, Aaron Sorkin’s award-winning stage adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird comes to Salford.
From £22.50
Neil Young is opening his 2026 UK and European tour in Manchester, stepping into Heaton Park with his newest band, The Chrome Hearts.
From £89.60
On New Year’s Eve in a quiet corner of Kent, in a single house, secrets inevitably bubble to the surface and a killer lies in wait.
From £25.00Where to go near Chester Town Hall
Chorlton’s magnificent Horse and Jockey has had an almighty do-over, transforming it into one of South Manchester’s top must-visit drinking and dining destinations.
New Jackson in Manchester is having a full scale seasonal takeover. Think curling lanes, lively bars and a packed line up of DJs and performances.
Chadderton Town Hall is a magnificent example of Edwardian architecture . Built in 1912/13 in the style of ‘English Renaissance’ and recently restored maintaining its traditional features in regal reds
at St John’s
A new alternative Manchester Christmas market from the well-seasoned team behind our street food faves Grub.
Manchester’s latest must-visit multipurpose venue, offering top-level food, drinks and live shows.
A new cocktail bar from the crack team behind 10 Tib Lane and Henry C.
Longstanding Italian restaurant in the snazzy bit of Manchester.
Snazzy Manchester outpost of the globe-straddling Japanese-meets-Peruvian restaurant brand.
Wholesome Ethiopian and Eritrean food courtesy of this fast-growing street food vendor.
Mighty food hall in Salford Quays, with around twenty street food vendors, serving a huge range of cuisines.
If you’re looking for quality coffee and a decadent brunch in a setting that nails the Northern Quarter brief, you’d struggle to do better than ASAP Coffee.
District Guides
Culture Guides
Winter brings a huge haul of seasonal shows, as well as productions that resolutely veer away from the fairy lights.
Manchester’s closing out the year – and looking to the new one – with a run of gigs from some of the country’s best underground exports.
This season, exhibitions across the North West feel attuned to the world beneath the world – the forces and stories shaping how we see, feel and imagine.
Step away from the usual. Tours and activities that spark curiosity, inspire creativity and offer something refreshingly different.
Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.
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.
Hear ye, hear ye. Take some eating-out tips from our wintertime guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.