Manchester’s annual Halloween festival, Halloween in the City, proved to be a spooktacular success over the weekend, with record numbers of visitors flocking into the city centre to enjoy the biggest celebrations to date.
Footfall across the city’s retail core soared by 15% across the weekend, with an additional 30,000 visitors revelling in the eerie activities cooked up by Manchester’s Business Improvement District, compared to 2017’s event. Exchange Square’s Halloween event stage saw the number of visitors increase by a fangtastic 37%. New Cathedral Street saw a 16% increase in footfall compared to the same weekend in 2017, while Market Street experienced a 6% increase.
Halloween in the City, which took place throughout the city’s key shopping areas, provided a welcome boost sales for many of the shops and cafes, with several businesses reporting double-digit sales increases compared to the same weekend in 2017.
Headlining 2018’s event was a collection of seven mind-bending inflatable giant monsters created by artists Filthy Luker and Pedro Estrellas. The duo’s entourage of inflatable monstrosities, outlandish beasties and giant tentacles took over city rooftops and landmark buildings, including Manchester Arndale, House of Fraser, Manchester Hall, Mayfield, Piccadilly Place and 35 Dale Street.
The event also saw hundreds of ghosts gather in Manchester’s Exchange Square in a bid to break the World Record for the most ghosts in one place, alongside a Spooky Pooch Costume Show and bone-jangling performances from The Strolling Bones – a stunning procession of skeleton puppets, stilt walkers, unicycle performers, five-piece band and dancers, courtesy of Walk the Plank, which weaved their way through the city’s streets.
In the run-up to Halloween in the City, Manchester was eerily awash with spooky decorations and pumpkin lanterns and after nightfall some of Manchester’s most iconic buildings including Manchester Town Hall, Paperchase, MediaCom, Manchester Hall, Afflecks, Harvey Nichols and were lit up a ghastly green.
Jane Sharrocks, Manchester BID Chair and General Manager of Selfridges Exchange Square said: “Halloween is now the third biggest retail event in the UK with spend across the UK predicted to surpass the £450m mark this year. Our annual Halloween in the City festival is one of the biggest city-wide events dedicated to Halloween in the UK and gives families an opportunity to come into the city to enjoy a range of free events, boosting footfall and ultimately sales for our retailers and restaurants.”
Cllr Pat Karney, Manchester City Council’s city centre spokesman, said: “This year’s Halloween celebrations in Manchester were bigger and better than ever. It was a frighteningly good event enjoyed by tens of thousands of visitors to the city, many of whom dressed in spooky costume, entering into the proper spirit of the occasion.”
