Open now, developments ongoing
Plans have been submitted to extend the 125-year-old Victorian Grade II listed former railway bridge Castlefield Viaduct, which opened in 2022 as a small urban park to the public. The 150-meter project will increase to over 350 meters allowing city visitors to connect with more nature. The project is currently open to visitors and run by the National Trust.

Completing in Spring 2025
The Grade I-listed John Rylands Library will mark its 125th anniversary in 2025 with Rylands125. A new collections gallery will be unveiled as part of refurbishments to the library, which will showcase 40 unique and rare items including Shakespeare’s First Folio, and modern items such as Joy Division’s managers notebook. Plus, a new special exhibition, The Secret Public will examine the importance of LGBTQ+ performers on mainstream popular culture. 

June and October 2025
The ENO (English National Opera) will relocate to Manchester by 2029 and has now released plans for its first productions in the region with a programme of events in 2025. In June, a special performance at the Manchester Classical festival will feature The Halle Orchestra and ENO, and in October, Benjamin Britten’s classic Albert Herring opera will feature as a newly staged version at Lowry in Salford. Further performances for 2026 and 2027 have also been announced.

With film and TV tourism – also known as ‘set-jetting’ – booming across the UK, Greater Manchester is ready to showcase its own starring role in 2025, helping visitors to discover the filming locations behind some of their favourite shows and movies. The city-region’s credits include household name productions (Peaky Blinders, The Crown, Captain America, Sherlock Holmes, Queer As Folk), outstanding British drama (It’s A Sin, Last Tango in Halifax, Years and Years, Life on Mars), witty Northern comedies (Brassic, Shameless, Fresh Meat, Alma’s Not Normal, Daddy Issues, Car Share), and of course, the world’s longest running soap, Coronation Street. To find the best filming spots, tour the city centre with The Locationist for guided insights into how Manchester ends up on both the big and small screen.

Opening in Summer 2025
Housing the largest collection of working steam engines in the UK, the Science and Industry Museum’s Power Hall will reopen following a five-year closure and renovation of the Grade II listed building. A reimagined gallery will take visitors through the history of the working machines and the stories of the people who worked with them.

Oldham Coliseum: 138-year-old theatre to reopen

Opening by December 2025
Standing in Oldham, Greater Manchester since 1887, the Oldham Coliseum theatre closed in 2023 after losing grant funding. Following a campaign by locals, the much-loved theatre will reopen by Christmas 2025 with a £10m grant from Oldham Council to refurbish and futureproof the theatre.

7 February – 2 November 2025
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of his birth, this free exhibition explores the work of the legendary English landscape artist J.M.W. Turner. It presents a rare opportunity for audiences to see the Liber Studiorum, which is widely regarded as the artist’s most ambitious series of landscape engravings. A compelling personal and visual manifesto in print that argued for the primacy of landscape painting, the published series will be shown in its entirety at the Whitworth in Manchester for the first time in over 100 years. This major exhibition will include loans from institutional and public collections, while highlighting Whitworth’s rarely seen Turner watercolours.    

10-13 April 2025
Following a popular debut in Copenhagen, the MancHagen Eurovision Festival will come to Manchester on 11-13 April as the UK’s largest celebration of the European song contest. Up to 5,500 tickets are available with standing, seated, VIP, and meet and greet packages including activities like drag, and performances from popular Eurovision stars and previous winners. The event will also raise money for charities and celebrate Manchester’s strong Ukrainian community links. 

16-25 May 2025
Founded in 1995, the Manchester Jazz Festival celebrates its 30th birthday with 10 days of events across venues around Manchester from 16 to 25 May. The festival will feature contemporary, homegrown and international artists, plus the return of its popular piano trail – full programme details will be announced soon.

May to August 2025
The National Portrait Gallery and FRAMELESS will join together to bring a new immersive art exhibition to Salford Quays from May 2025, with Stories – Brought to Life, showcasing the human stories inspired by the collection at the London gallery, with digital projections and audio installations.

3-20 July 2025
Every two years Manchester International Festival (MIF) brings the most exciting artists on the planet to Manchester to create ambitious new work, from art and theatre to music, dance and everything in between. 2025 marks the 10th edition of the festival, which has been running since 2007, and will be the first festival for new Creative Director Kee Hong Low. Full programme to be announced in March 2025.

Coming in Summer 2025
The world’s biggest cricket events will come to Emirates Old Trafford in Summer 2025. The cricket ground, which is also home to the newly extended pitch-facing Hilton Garden Inn hotel, will host the England v India matches for the Women’s International T20, and Men’s Test Match in July, followed by the Men’s International T20 England v South Africa in September.

Autumn 2025
Newly opened venue Aviva Studios, home of Factory International, will welcome global artist Marina Abramović with a large-scale premiere performance work exploring ancient beliefs and folktales. Balkan Erotic Epic brings together performance, dance and traditional Balkan throat singing for a daring and unique performance. Earlier in the year, Hamlet Hail to the Thief will see an unusual collaboration of Shakespeare’s great tragedy and Radiohead’s seminal album collide for a new live experience from 27 April to 18 May.

Japan Week: arts and cultural events to takeover city

4-9 September 2025
A cultural festival featuring hundreds of Japanese performers and showcasing Japanese culture will take over Manchester for a week following the city’s selection as host to Japan Week 2025. The 50th anniversary of the international event will bring arts, music, fashion and sports to the city with a series of free events, coinciding with EXPO 2025 in Osaka.

STACK: two street food locations in development

Opening in early 2025
Taking over the shipping container street food venue formerly known as Hatch, STACK will open the site to new independent food, drink and market traders in 2025. The site on Oxford Road in Manchester, will see the site extended, whilst a similar concept will open in the Greater Manchester town of Wigan with capacity for up to 2,000 people.

Chotto Matte: 450-seat rooftop restaurant brings Japanese-Peruvian dining

Opening in early 2025
Covering 20,000 sq ft, Chotto Matte will open as the largest restaurant in Manchester on top of the new St Michael’s development overlooking Manchester Town Hall. The restaurant is set to seat 450 diners, serving Japanese and Peruvian fusion Nikkei dishes.

Lina Stores: high-end Italian deli opens first venue outside London

Opening in Spring 2025
80 years after opening its popular restaurant in Soho, London, Lina Stores will open in Manchester as their first location outside of the capital. The deli-style restaurant will seat 150-diners with an all-day menu, including Italian-inspired breakfast, freshly made pasta, sandwiches and coffee.

Japan Week: arts and cultural events to takeover city

4-9 September 2025
A cultural festival featuring hundreds of Japanese performers and showcasing Japanese culture will take over Manchester for a week following the city’s selection as host to Japan Week 2025. The 50th anniversary of the international event will bring arts, music, fashion and sports to the city with a series of free events, coinciding with EXPO 2025 in Osaka.

Opening in 2025
Plans to redesign the iconic Victoria Warehouse have been submitted, which will see its bedroom offer increase from 64 to 200 rooms. The venue, which hosts major live music concerts, opened in 1925 as a cotton warehouse, becoming a music venue just outside the city centre in 2006. 

Opening in early 2025
Taking over 14 storeys, with 224 bedrooms, Treehouse Hotel Manchester is set to open in 2025 with a £200m redevelopment of a former hotel on Deansgate, in Manchester City Centre. The second location for the hotel brand in the UK, following London, the property will feature playful aesthetics, and a line-up of food and drink offerings that will include a top-floor restaurant and rooftop bars, as well as a ground floor low-waste eatery.

Coming in late 2025
Its most ambitious project to date will see Mollie’s, the UK hotel and diner concept come to Manchester opening its third and largest site in the Old Granada TV studios. Taking over 100,000 sq ft of the historic 1950s building, it will offer 130 bedrooms, and a 150-cover diner-style restaurant, with the top three floors of the building to be shared with Soho House, which will offer a club, swimming pool and private spaces.

Opening in 2025
As the most visited zoo in the UK, Chester Zoo, which is around an hour from Manchester, will open 51 safari-style lodges allowing guests to stay in the Zoo. Lodges will overlook the savannah enclosure where giraffes roam freely, or across the scenic lake, with lodges accommodating four and six people.