Manchester, UK is preparing to welcome visitors in 2025 with a year packed full of cultural experiences, hidden gems, new places to explore and stay, and anniversaries that can only be found in the Greater Manchester region.
Cultural milestones will be marked in 2025, including the celebration of ten years since The Whitworth opened, with a new exhibition JWM Turner: In Light and Shade, which will see the legendary artist’s Liber Studiorum masterpiece displayed in full for the first time in 100 years. Much-loved theatre and Salford cultural hub, Lowry, will mark its 25th birthday with a year of events, which includes a month-long run of National Theatre production Dear England, a play about English football, fitting for a region home to two of the world’s best-known teams.
The summer will welcome a highlight of the cultural calendar with the return of Manchester International Festival, which marks its 10th edition since starting in 2007 and the first by new Creative Director Low Kee Hong. The biennial festival, run by Factory International, will be hosted at a new home, Aviva Studios and venues across the city, with a line-up expected to be announced in March 2025. Shows at the venue already announced for 2025 include Hamlet Hail to the Thief, an unusual collaboration between Radiohead and Shakespeare, and a daring large-scale performance piece from artist Marina Abramović.
Manchester will also increase its global cultural connections, participating as the first UK city to be invited to join La Merce festival in Barcelona, and will celebrate Japanese culture as host to the 50th edition of prestigious Japan Week in September.
For music fans, the city will have its ‘supersonic’ moment when Oasis returns to their hometown in July to perform five sold-out shows at Heaton Park, whilst major international artists from Billie Eilish and Robbie Williams to Andrea Bocelli and Hans Zimmer – will visit the city at major venues AO Arena and newly opened Co-op Live. And, in preparation for its full move to Manchester in 2029, the English National Opera will host a series of warm-up events including a partnership with The Hallé Orchestra and a newly staged version of Britten’s classic Albert Herring opera.
Keen-eyed film and TV fans will have the chance to spot locations as seen on screen with a new Manchester Film & TV Map that has launched with a self-guided trail around iconic locations that have appeared in shows like The Crown, Queer as Folk, Cold Feet, and Captain America.
Across Greater Manchester, districts like Rochdale are enjoying revival following the reopening of the Grade I listed Rochdale Town Hall after a £20m restoration. The town, which is a 12-minute train ride from Manchester, will also see the Touchstones art gallery and museum reopen in 2025. Across Greater Manchester other attractions with new stories include Oldham Coliseum which will reopen following renovation and a local campaign to save it from closure; and Stockport’s Hat Works Museum continues to intrigue with 1,000 new items on display for the first time.
Families can also find lots of educational activities in 2025 – Planetarium Go! will launch with a new pop-up experience from 3 to 31 March offering fun and educational screenings; Manchester Museum, which has been shortlisted for European Museum of the Year 2025 is planning an exciting family show to run throughout the summer school holidays; and the Science and Industry Museum welcomes the return of Operation Ouch! Brains, Bogies and You, based on the hit BBC Children’s series, alongside the long-awaited reopening of the iconic Power Hall, featuring working steam engines.
Known globally for sport, Greater Manchester will host the Men’s and Women’s T20 England v India cricket at Emirates Old Trafford in July, the Women’s Rugby World Cup in August, and of course, a full season of football matches at the two world-famous clubs, set to draw fans in for an unforgettable year of sport.
Visitors will have a great choice of places to stay, and joining the line-up for 2025 will be the long-awaited opening of Treehouse Hotel, with a focus on sustainability and a new rooftop restaurant; and Mollie’s Motel from the Soho House group, bringing their 50’s motel concept to the city.
The food and drink offering in the city continues to build an appetite, with new restaurants planned including Chotto Matte, set to be the largest restaurant in Manchester with 450-covers and serving Japanese-Peruvian fusion; high-end Lina Stores, coming in from London with freshly made pasta in a 150-cover restaurant; and Stack – with two new street food locations setting up inside former shipping containers in Manchester and Wigan.
Established attractions will also provide new reasons to visit the city in 2025, including the extension of Castlefield Viaduct, taking the 125-year-old former railway line from its 150-meter park to over 350-meters long, and the completion of upgrades at the Victorian John Rylands Library, with upgraded gallery and exhibitions space, set to open in Spring.
Plus, established events will return in 2025 including, Manchester Pride Festival with four-days of celebration of the LGBTQ+ community; Bolton Food and Drink Festival, one of the largest in the UK, and the popular Manchester Christmas Markets.
Ahead of welcoming visitors to the city-region in 2025, Victoria Braddock, Managing Director of Marketing Manchester, said; “It’s an exciting time to plan a visit to Manchester in 2025 – following the last few years of major reopening’s across the cultural scene including Aviva Studios, Manchester Museum and Co-op Live, the city-region has a wide range of unique attractions and experiences for visitors to enjoy.
“In 2025 there are plenty of must-see moments exclusive to Manchester, with new reasons to visit all year long, alongside the popular return of annual events like the Manchester Flower Festival, Manchester Pride, and Christmas Markets, it’s fantastic to see the tourism offer in the region grow, and we look forward to offering a warm welcome to visitors throughout the year.”
