Celebration Day 2012

Building on the success of Celebration Day 2009 in Manchester Town Hall, Celebration Day 2012 featured over 80 exhibitors, talks, cookery demonstrations, walking tours, interactive games, a footballing play, a music Fanzine Panel, and workshops... all for FREE!

Manchester Town Hall

The Town Hall was bustling with over 80 exhibitors representing Manchester's diverse history and heritage including Manchester Museum, Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, Manchester Sporting History, Friends of Kersal Moor, Manchester Modernist Society and Manchester Jewish Museum.

For those needing a sit down, North West Film Archive hosted screenings which touched on everything from Little Italy's ice cream families (sampling was encouraged) to a history of the Manchester Evening News.

People feeling a little peckish, watched celebrity chef Robert Owen Brown's heritage cookery demonstrations, sampling some of his recipes of yesteryear.

There was lots of fun with Larkin' About and Manchester Library Theatre's history games which took place in and around the Town Hall. Competitors had to find clues, solve mysteries, rescue birds and use their guile to create winning allegiances. The games were open to all ages with participants signing up at the MHF Information Stand in the Town Hall on the day.

People pre-booked their tickets to not miss the fascinating one-man football play I'll Be Bert about Bert Trautmann, the German prisoner of war and Manchester City goalkeeper, whereas the audiophiles, joined DJ, author and broadcaster Dave Haslam for his panel discussion about Manchester's alternative music magazines.

Both the Catholic Family History Society and the Heritage Lottery Fund held workshops, and visitors found out what it was like being an evacuee from Guernsey to Manchester in World War Two.

The popular Town Hall Clock Tower tours returned with a sell out!

Friends' Meeting House

Across the road from the Town Hall, talks were taking place every hour starting from 10.30am covering a vast scope of Len Johnson the Manchester boxer posing in a boxing stance
Image Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council Manchester's history from motoring to Manchester Dogs, boxing to the American Civil War, the World's first spaceman to Manchester's first woman Councillor.

All talks were free with tickets to many being snapped up in advance of Celebration Day.

Other events...

It was not simply the Town Hall and Friends' Meeting House that were busy. There were events across Greater Manchester to make sure guests knew everything that was happening on the Celebration Day.

Some of the highlights included an Open Day at the Museum of Transport, which many travelled to on a heritage bus caught from a stop outside the Town Hall. Elsewhere, budding time teamers joined an archaeological dig, unearthing remains of Hulme's forgotten past. There were a host of walking tours across the city on the day, including a digital tour that, with the aid of a smart phone, transported walkers a century back in time. Those wanting to rediscover the skill of mending, joined in a mending workshop linked to the From Swaddling Clothes exhibition.