THERE are all sorts of free family celebrations going on in Manchester city centre this weekend, including the long-awaited opening of the revamped Piccadilly Gardens on Saturday as well as The Lord Mayor's Parade, the Asda Feast Of Delights Parade and the BBC Music Live Festival, all happening on Monday.
The old Piccadilly Gardens have undergone a dramatic transformation over the last year or so and will officially re-open on Saturday with an afternoon of free family fun from 1-4pm. This year the traditional Lord Mayor's Parade in Manchester is taking place on Jubilee Bank Holiday Monday and becomes part of the city's Jubilee Celebrations, the Asda Feast Of Delights Parade and the BBC Music Live Festival.
The main events
Manchester's city centre will play host not just to Manchester's new Lord Mayor, Councillor Roy Walters, but to all of the Greater Manchester mayors (Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside, Trafford, Stockport and Wigan) who will be leading the spectacular parade in a series of beautiful Rolls-Royce classic cars. An estimated 2,000 people from all over the region are expected to take part in the Parade, with official entries as well as community groups, marching bands, dancers and drummers. The Main Event areas for the Feast Of Delights Parade, BBC Music Live Festival, BBC Summer Screens, and the Golden Jubilee Celebrations are Albert Square, Exchange Square, St Ann's Square and Cathedral Gardens.
Samba CityEvents in Albert Square begin at 9am with the Whit Walks (including Service at 10.15am. Then there's live samba/soca music from 1-2.15pm with Siyaya, until the Feast Parade arrives. From 3.30pm, there's Samba City until the BBC Concert Orchestra and Mangrove Steel Band from 4pm (also broadcast live on BBC Radio 3).
Blojangles
Events in Exchange Square run from 7.30am until 11pm, beginning with BBC Summer Screen showings of the Croatia v. Mexico and Brazil v. Turkey World Cup matches. BBC Music Live events begin at 12.30pm with Blojangles, the Italian Festival Flag Throwers and Brass Belles.
All You Need is Love
The All You Need is Love national TV linkup is from 1-1.30pm, at which time the Feast Parade begins in Corporation Street. From 7.30pm until 8.30pm the BBC Summer Screens show Party From The Palace, a live broadcast of the Buckingham Palace Jubilee pop/rock concert, followed from 8.30pm by live coverage of the lighting of more than 1,500 beacons across the country.
Music LiveFrom noon until 6pm St Ann's Square and St Ann's Street feature a programme of street theatre and semi-acoustic bands as part of the Music Live, with activities also including walkabout performances from Strangelings, Interactive Arts and Whalley Range All Stars.
Street theatre
The programme of timed events begins at noon with the Italian Festival Band: Belleze Naturalle. The programme of street theatre and professional and community music performance on Cathedral Gardens runs from 1pm, beginning with Tashi Lhunpo (Tibetan Monks). At 1.30pm the Feast Parade passes on Corporation Street.
Feast Of Delights
Last, but by no means least, here's the route of the Asda Feast Of Delights Parade from 1.30-3.30pm, with each float, from over sixty different groups showing off their own kind of feat, be it tasty, colourful, comic, theatrical or just unique!
It starts from Red Bank/Corporation Street, with large floats feeding into the parade at Withy Grove (Printworks), and then proceeds up Cross Street, down St. Ann's Street onto Deansgate, left up John Dalton Street and into Albert Square, where the main floats will assemble at the far end of the Square, while others will disassemble and depart from the area via Mount Street, Central and Southmill Street.
North Cheshire Comedy Festival.
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