Fun Food and Frolics with Festivals

Category: Festivals.

Fun, food and frolics! Just some of the delights that October promises to deliver with its amazing festival line up. Mix traditional with contemporary, food with fiction, and science with religion and fill your October with the best festivals Greater Manchester has on offer.

What better way to kick off the celebrations than with fantastic food and drink. The Manchester Food and Drink festival has more than 100 events spread over 10 days between 7th and 17th October. The Food and Drink Festival encompasses flavours to suit all palates, experience new tastes and smells from the perfectly blended to the more eclectic. Eat at some of the city’s best food places for just £15 with Festival Fifteen. Feel the burn at The Chilli Lovers Fair and take part in the chilli eating contest and wash it all down with wine from some of UK’s best independent wine merchants at the The Third Big Indie Wine Fest. This year’s festival also features the Kids Food Fest, so there’s something for all the family!

This coming weekend also sees the Hindu festivals of Dashehra and Diwali (8th October). Enjoy Indian themed food and activities in Platt Fields Park, including Henna and face painting, paper craft, nail art and lantern making. Stay around till after dark when a lantern procession and a firework display will provide an explosive end to the evening.

Running through the whole of October and into November is the Asia Triennial Manchester (1st October – 27th November), a vibrant and exciting festival of contemporary visual art featuring work from both international and UK artists. Enjoy the sculpture of Adeela Suleman at Manchester Cathedral or pop down to Cornerhouse to catch one of the special film screenings or to see current exhibition by Rashid Rana, who is widely considered to be the most prominent and original contemporary artist working in South Asia.

What have Rising Damp, Bug and Peter Kay got in common? The Manchester Comedy Festival of course! Starting on the 17th of October this year’s lineup is yet again a 14 day bonanza of shows, plays and standup guaranteed to get those stomach muscles aching.

Why not whet your palate at the sixth Manchester Literature Festival (10th and 23rd October)? The festival runs at various venues across Manchester, taking you on a world tour of the imagination with inspirational authors as your guides. Be swept away with tales from the Amazon jungle, the land of the Viking gods and bohemian Manchester itself. Entertain the family at one of the many family friendly storytelling events, indulge your passion for rugby and reading, and learn how to splice science and fiction. With every genre from Nordic science fiction to dub poetry, there’s something to suit all tastes.

Break up your literary quest with a dip into the Manchester Weekender (14th,15th,16th October), a weekend brimming with celebrations of everything cultural that Manchester has to offer.

As if October hasn’t got enough going on put on your thinking caps at the Manchester Science Festival, (22-30th October) which has a packed program of comedy, debates, and art/science events. Highlights include BBC’s Bang Goes the Theory LIVE Experience at MOSI, Polar, a stunning cinematic portrait of the Polar Regions with a live orchestral soundtrack performed by the Manchester Camerata, and Primitive Streak by artist Helen Storey, presenting the first 1000 hours of human life through a mixture of visual arts, dance and music.

October leaves summer a distant memory but here in Greater Manchester you can still enjoy the festival buzz just without muddy fields, porta loos and pop up tents. If only we could confirm you wouldn’t need your wellies…

Feature by Donna Doodson

Image care of socialbedia, licensed under Creative Commons