Plenty of tricks and even more treats at Halloween in the City

There’s plenty to do at Halloween in the City to get you into the spirit of Halloween.

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By Amber Ghei

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Manchester’s Business Improvement District returns with the UK’s biggest Halloween celebration. Halloween in the City, a family-friendly festival, welcomes the public to a weekend of frightful fun in the run-up to Halloween. The festival will showcase a range of events across Manchester, including Mayfield, the Arndale Centre, Piccadilly Place, Dale Street and Manchester Albert Hall from Saturday 27^th to Sunday 28^th October. What’s on?

• Locations across Manchester, such as the town hall, will be lit up by eerie green lights and decorated with pumpkins and other spooky iconography.
• The ‘Monster Invasion’, an installation created by Filthy Luker, a Bristol-based artist, has taken over the Manchester skyline.
• Locals and visitors can participate in a mysterious trail of tricks and treats.
• Dog owners can enter their canine friends in the Spooky Pooch Dog Costume Show.
• To break the world record for the most ghosts gathered in one location, the Heart of Manchester BID is encouraging families to come down to Exchange Square at 1pm on Saturday 27th October with a bed-sheet to beat the existing record of 650 ghosts.

Many more ghoulish delights, such as themed live music and DJ sets and make-up demonstrations, will also be on offer over the weekend. For more information, visit the Halloween in the City page on the Visit Manchester website. If that isn’t enough, The Village Green will also be screening some Halloween classics over the lead-up to Halloween:

• Jaws – 25^th October
• The Lost Boys – 26^th October
• The Witches – 27^th and 31^st October
• The Shining – 31^st October

Or, if a night out is more to your taste, there’s plenty on offer for you, too:

• University of Manchester – Halloween Carnival, A Twisted Circus at the student union – 31^st October
• Applebum – Hip-Hop Horror Show at Gorilla – 31^st October
• Hotmess vs Orderly Conduct – Lockdown Halloween Special, The Purge at Ark and Revolution Clubs – 31^st October

Manchester Metropolitan University, home of the world-famous Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies, also has plenty to offer its students with an interest in all things preternatural, such as a Halloween board game event on Saturday 27th, a talk on Haunted Heritage and Literature in Salford’s famously spectral Ordsall Hall, and a showcase on research into Spiritualism and the Supernatural which is sure to send a shiver up the spine of even the most obstinate non-believer. Whatever your idea of a perfect Halloween consists of, you’re certain not to be disappointed in Manchester this year.