The Medieval Festival is back!

It’s a Family-Friendly Medieval Festival!🎉🎈👨‍👩‍👧

The Manchester Medieval festival returns for its second year on 23rd – 24th September, set in and around Manchester’s Medieval Quarter. 

Printworks is proud to be part of the Medieval Quarter, along with the Corn Exchange, the Stoller Hall, National Football Museum, Victoria Station & Manchester Arena. Printworks as we now know it was originally erected as Withy Grove Printing House back in 1873. It ran successfully as a newspaper printers for over 100 years, producing publications such as the Manchester Evening Chronicle and the Daily Mirror, until it was closed in 1985. The printing press itself was created during the late medieval period and is an innovation that enabled people to share knowledge more quickly and widely, accelerating human progress.

Rich in culture and history, the medieval quarter is home to some of the city’s oldest buildings such as Manchester Cathedral and Chetham’s Library. Chetham’s School of Music, Chetham’s Library and Manchester Cathedral make the most complete medieval site to survive in the north of England and the Manchester we know and love today grew from this area. These buildings date back to 1421 and Chetham’s was originally used to accommodate the priests of Manchester’s Collegiate Church.

Manchester’s Medieval Festival ⚔

The two-day festival celebrates the rich history and the incredible stories from Manchester’s past. It opens from 10am on Saturday 23 September and closes around 4pm on Sunday 23 September. Organised by University of Manchester and Chetham’s Foundation, the Medieval Festival is a huge hit with people of all ages. It features fascinating history tourslive musicfilm screenings, workshopsfood & drink, and medieval entertainment including jesters and stilt-walkers!

There will be guided tours of medieval buildings as well as talks from the country’s leading archaeologists who will explore the local landscape and tell stories of the people and places of Medieval Manchester. Manchester Cathedral will display fascinating items from its archives to illustrate some of the stories.

Visit the historic courtyard at Chetham’s for dance workshops, craft activities, and entertainment. For music lovers, there will be live period music from Chetham’s School of Music students to set the mood as well as ‘give it a go’ recorder lessons for all ages. An evening in the beautiful Baronial Hall, part of Chetham’s Library, will explore musical cultures in the medieval period and performances will reflect the diversity of music produced in non-western cultures during the time. There’s also an exploration of medieval book-making in the Baronial Hall.

Head to The Stoller Hall for the Manchester-premiere of Yiimimangaliso (The Mysteries), a South African version of the English Medieval Chester Mystery Plays, as well as a talk and Q&A with Director Mark Dornford-May. This multi-lingual production, which is an international touring hit, explores Biblical stories through song, dance, and innovative staging. There’s plenty for littles ones at The Stoller Hall too, including a performance of Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants.

There is also the opportunity to experience the sights, sounds and tastes of the period in the Cathedral Gardens – Historia Nomanis will transport you back to Medieval England with their unique style of re-enactment. John Rylands Library on Deansgate is in on the action too and will display rare books and manuscripts from across medieval cultures.

You can simply wander through the festival to take in the sights and visit the stalls or book tickets to special events.

National Football Museum ⚽

For all those footie fans, The National Football Museum is holding football-inspired print workshops that all ages can enjoy on the Saturday, from 10:30am-1:30pm. You can get to grips with the printing press and then head over to Printworks, where it was actually used for printing the newspapers!

If you show your tickets to select venues in Printworks you can get a discount on your meal too! Originally only available at Hard Rock Cafe with 15% off food and beverages, the National Football Museum discount is now available at some of your other favourite Printworks venues. Head to Frankie & Benny’sChiquito, or Bierkeller with your tickets and get 20% off your meal! You can also enjoy some tasty food at O’Neill’s with a 10% discount thanks to your ticket! T&C’s apply.

And it works both ways too – show your meal receipt from any of these restaurants along with the code PRINTWORKS20 at the National Football Museum for 20% off your tickets! Now that’s what we call a win-win!

Check out King Arthur’s resent visit to Printworks…

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