It’s a collaboration between Allied London’s ‘London Road; The Manchester Ice Rink; London based Elemental Events, whose Director Jay Ogugua was one of the main people behind Solomons’ Yar’ in Camden Town, and The Halo Group, the multi-award winning creative production company behind the design of Background Bars’ Night Tales Series.
The festive transformation of the iconic London Road will launch on 11 November and run throughout the holiday season, opening from Tuesday to Sunday. By day ‘The Winter Gathering’ is the perfect setting to skate and eat with family and friends and by night the atmosphere will transform into an afterhours party with live music and international acclaimed DJs soon be announced, previous line ups have included ‘Solomon’s Yard’ hosted by Norman Jay and Grand Master Flash.
Jay Ogugua from Elemental Events said: “London Road is the perfect venue to create a magical experience on the run up to Christmas, the vibe of the place is already very special and we are building on this atmosphere to construct an incredible space for people to come and hang out in where they can eat, drink, skate and dance.
“Manchester is famous for the Christmas markets, with hundreds of thousands of people descending on the City each year. We are offering something new, to compliment this vibrant heritage of the markets, in a building that people have wondered about for many years.”
Already confirmed for the street food stalls are, Steel Smoking, Bangers & Bacon, So Salad Crew and Wing It! and there will be a rotation of operators curated by the British Street Food Awards, with bars providing mulled wine, hot chocolate, local craft beer and cocktails.
The event also features a pop up art space, exhibiting limited edition prints produced by leading Contemporary Galleries. There will be a number of Manchester designer makers on rotation selling artisan and boutique goods, run in partnership with Made Here, the market event producers who ran their very successful market event at the venue in September.
The Winter Gathering in Manchester
