Events that cost nothing to turn up to in and around Manchester. Library sessions, park activities, museum trails and town centre days. Some venues still charge for parking.
A free, low-key Halloween-season job for 5 to 12s: pick up a sheet at the welcome desk and make a skeleton mask inspired by a mysterious painting in Gallery One. Runs through half term and all of November.
More than 210 stalls across the city centre, with the big wheel and a helter-skelter in Albert Square, Skate MCR's covered rink in Cathedral Gardens and a new site at Lincoln Square. Saturday evenings are shoulder to shoulder, which is a lot with a pushchair.
Manchester's free council fireworks are back for the first time since 2019, with a reduced-noise, low-impact show at 5pm for young children and SEND families, then a lantern parade and the main display at 8pm. Go early if you have a toddler and be home for bath time.
The Fallowfield one of the council's three free displays, with the same two-show format: quieter and earlier at 5pm, loud at 8pm with a lantern parade in between. Wilmslow Road will be busy, so the bus beats the car.
One of three free council displays returning to Manchester parks this year. The 5pm show is deliberately quieter for little ones and children with SEND; the full-volume display follows at 8pm after a lantern parade. The park is huge, so agree a meeting point before it gets dark.
The city's Christmas parade is booked in for Sunday 6 December. The council has not published the route or start time yet, so check nearer the day before you promise anyone a front-row spot.