February Half Term

Play, create and experiment with free drop-in activities and science shows for all ages. Add a ticket to our special exhibition Turn It Up: The power of music to discover some weird and wonderful instruments or play your way through 50 years of gaming with a visit to Power UP.

Discover the science of sound at The Noisy Show, a brand-new interactive show. Make a racket with our expert Explainers and find out more about what sound is, how we experience it, and more.

Head to one of our daily Sound Sessions to hear from people that work with music or noise. In this series of inspiring talks our Explainer team will be joined by different professionals ready to share what they do and how it works.

Get hands-on and craft your own instrument or noise-maker in one of our afternoon drop-in workshops, or settle down in a cosy Acoustic Corner to experiment with materials that change how sound travels.

Test your senses in Experiment, our interactive gallery designed for the whole family to enjoy together. Play songs on musical pipes and make music with your body, get creative with glow-in-the-dark art and throw some shapes to tell stories on the shadow wall.

Journey through Manchester's rich legacy of industrial innovations, scientific discoveries and ideas that changed the world in Revolution Manchester. Meet 'Baby'—the ancestor of every modern computer—and get up close to one of the first Rolls-Royce motorcars, an important part of our city's industrial heritage.

Experience the thunderous sounds of Manchester's mills in the Textiles Gallery as the machinery whirrs to life in one of our regular demonstrations. Try your hand at fabric weaving and take part in Textile City, an immersive art project by Jenny Steele. Redesign Manchester's cityscape using foam blocks covered in textiles print inspired by Manchester's unique architecture.