Things to look forward to in 2021 (vaccines permitting)
AFTER all that has 2020 has thrown at us, the new year is finally here and Greater Manchester certainly has a lot to look forward to. Despite a challenging 12 months, the region already has a long list of new developments coming up in the new year and through to 2023.
With so much in the pipeline, the team at Marketing Manchester, the city’s official tourism chiefs, have chosen 21 of the best things to get excited about across the year and beyond.
1. EUROPE’S LARGEST GARDEN PROJECT TO OPEN IN SALFORD
The Royal Horticultural Society’s first new garden in 17 years is set to open on May 11 in the lost historic grounds of Worsley New Hall in Salford.
RHS Garden Bridgewater will be a 154-acre garden and is currently the largest gardening project in Europe.
When it opens it will feature one of the largest walled gardens in the UK, a visitor centre and cafe, community teaching allotments, a kitchen garden, orchards, a woodland play area, and a Chinese stream-side garden, alongside Ellesmere Lake, woodland and other garden spaces.
2. UK’S LARGEST URBAN FARM AND ECO-PARK TO OPEN IN OLDHAM
Northern Roots in Oldham will offer woodland, moorland and seasonal wetlands to explore.
The site is home to an abundance of native and migrating birds, plants and animals and has plans to grow into the UK’s largest urban farm and eco-park.
3. NEW I’M A CELEBRITY... GET ME OUT OF HERE! JUNGLE CHALLENGE ATTRACTION OPENS
A brand-new family entertainment attraction celebrating ITV’s popular show I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! is set to open at the new The Watergardens development at MediaCityUK. The I’m A Celebrity... Jungle Challenge attraction will bring an exciting mix of tasks and trials based on the hit show, including jungle zip lines, treetop ropes course and vertical climbing walls in 2021.
4. MANCHESTER’S OLDEST MUSIC VENUE WILL EXPAND AND REOPEN
The legendary Band on the Wall has been entertaining Manchester for generations with a history stretching far back to the 19th Century and beyond.
In September this year the venue will expand into the Victorian Cocozza building that has been derelict to the rear of the venue for decades, taking its gig capacity from 340 to 540 people.
5. BREWDOG TO OPEN ENGLAND’S FIRST EVER BEER HOTEL IN MANCHESTER
Scottish beer brewing giants BrewDog have announced that they will open their first hotel in England, following the success of the DogHouse brand in
Scotland and the US.
No opening date has been fixed yet but the 25-bedroom hotel is aiming to be open before the end of this year, located just off Market Street.
Plans suggest that the hotel will feature Punk IPA on tap in every room, beer fridges in the showers, a rooftop terrace with fire pit, and will allow guests to bring their pets. Their new bar situated underneath the proposed hotel is due to open early this year.
6. NEW SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY OPENING AT THE SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY MUSEUM
This new gallery will reveal striking historic spaces previously not open to the public on the lower ground floor of the Science and Industry Museum’s Grade II-listed New Warehouse.
It has been designed by awardwinning architects, Carmody Groarke, and will host some of the world’s best science exhibitions.
The Special Exhibitions Gallery will open in March with a free exhibition called Top Secret, which will explore over a century’s worth of communications intelligence through hand-written documents, declassified files and previously unseen artefacts from the Science Museum Group’s
and GCHQ’s historic collections – time to channel your inner James Bond!
In summer, the museum will also open a highly-anticipated exhibition that’s been rescheduled from last year. Use Hearing Protection: The early years of Factory Records will tell the story of Manchester’s infamous record label. It will feature previously unseen items from the Factory archives, including creations from Joy Division, New Order, and Peter Saville.
But before all that, the museum will also host the Manchester Science Festival in February.
7. AN EXTENDED AND MORE INTERACTIVE MANCHESTER JEWISH MUSEUM
In spring, Manchester Jewish Museum will re-open its doors following an huge makeover and extension. The museum, which is housed inside a former synagogue built in 1873, will double in size complete with a new gallery, learning studio and kitchen, shop and cafe, alongside the renovated synagogue.
8. NEW FASHION GALLERY TO OPEN AT MANCHESTER ART GALLERY
A new dedicated fashion gallery is set to open at Manchester Art Gallery in November as part of a permanent shift of the costume collection from Platt Hall Gallery of Costume. The first exhibition will focus on male image and the ‘dandy’ style made popular in the late 18th and early 19th Century.
After being closed for two years to allow for refurbishment, Octagon Bolton will welcome audiences back for socially distanced performances early this year.
10. NEWLY-REFURBISHED CONTACT THEATRE TO REOPEN
The UK’s leading youth arts organisation Contact is set to reopen in autumn and will feature the country’s first dedicated space for art, health and science in a UK theatre.
11. MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
A major highlight in the cultural calendar will be the return of 18 days of dynamic, innovative and forward-thinking new work as part of the biennial Manchester International Festival in July.
The first event announced so far for 2021 comes in the form of an epic theatrical journey.
The Walk will take Little Amal, a 3.5-metre puppet of a young refugee girl, 8,000km across Europe before arriving in Manchester on the opening weekend.
12. MANCHESTER PRIDE RETURNS
The world-renowned Manchester Pride Festival weekend is expected to return this year over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
13. A CELEBRATION OF ALL THINGS MANCUNIAN AT MANCHESTER DAY
Manchester Day is an annual
Manchester Day will return in June celebration of the city and its people and, like Manchester Pride, captures the very spirit of Mancunians. Every year a new parade theme is chosen, but the 2020 theme of ‘Our Planet, Our City’, is expected to form a big part of the 2021 celebrations in June.
Old Trafford Stadium will be playing host to both the Rugby League World Cup and Women’s Rugby League World Cup finals as a double-header event on November 27, making it one of the biggest UK sports events of the year.
The world cup will also see two Greater Manchester towns take part in the competition – Bolton will host the men’s quarter-final and England v France games at the University of Bolton Stadium and will be the
The poppy tribute at IWM North home training ground for the France team while visiting.
Elsewhere, Leigh Sports Village in Wigan will host three men’s matches.
Climate conscious brand Qbic are bringing their fourth European hotel to Manchester, with preconfigured rooms made from largely recycled materials taking up residence in a former office block.
Opening in March, the hotel is all about sustainability, rewarding guests with free drinks for choosing green by not having towels or linen changed.
16. KIMPTON HOTEL TO RE-OPEN IN MANCHESTER
Kimpton’s fourth hotel in the UK, the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel (formerly the Principal Manchester - and before that The Palace) has recently brought the international brand’s cosmopolitan style, cool culture and luxury service to Manchester. The iconic Grade II* star-listed hotel began life in 1895 as The Refuge Assurance Building, and in homage to the origins of the building, the hotel’s on-site restaurant The Refuge will continue alongside Kimpton.
Manchester has a rich history as home to award-winning poets.
The likes of Tony Walsh and his famous This is The Place inspirational poem about Manchester, Salford-born John Cooper Clarke, Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE, Lemn Sissay MBE, and Jackie Kay MBE all call the cityregion their home. Building on Manchester’s UNESCO City of Literature status, awarded in 2017, the Manchester Poetry Library will open in early 2021, as part of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.
18. CELEBRATED AUTHOR’S BEDROOM ADDED AT ELIZABETH GASKELL’S HOUSE
Spring will see the opening of a new chapter for Elizabeth Gaskell’s House with the public launch of the celebrated author’s bedroom - recreated to reflect how it would have looked when she lived there.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s house
Wigan Pier will be given a new lease of life when the long-vacant 18th Century industrial buildings are transformed into a new neighbourhood waterside venue.
Expected to be ready in summer, it will become a gin distillery, microbrewery and food hall.
Following the success of Poppies: Wave and Weeping Window, which toured Imperial War Museum London and North during the final year of the First World War centenary, the poppies will be displayed permanently at Imperial War Museum North from November.
While we wait for the new and highly anticipated Mayfield Park, within the same vicinity is Escape to Freight Island.
A rare success story from 2020 when it opened as a 600-seat openair venue, it boasted a wealth of live music and events alongside streetstyle food and drink from independent traders.
The site will be further developed this year.
BEYOND 2021...
There’s plenty more to look forward to in Greater Manchester beyond 2021.
Highlights include a transformation at Manchester Museum to add a South Asia Gallery and a new China Gallery, due to open in August 2022, followed by the highly anticipated opening of The Factory, a 13,300sq ft arts centre.
Then in 2023, Manchester’s first new city centre park in more than 100 years, Mayfield Park, is set to be open.
This is as well as the UK’s first city-based wellbeing resort Therme, a new large-scale music venue, Co-op Live Arena, and Modern Surf Manchester surf lagoon, from the same company behind Surf Snowdonia.