Week-long cocktails festival coming to Manchester

Manchester loves cocktails. Fact. And to prove it, a week-long festival of cocktails is coming to town next month to celebrate the art of mixing and to showcase the city’s incredible cocktail scene.

Manchester Loves Cocktails is promising seven days of mixing, shaking, creating, drinking, tasting, clinking, debating, and sipping across thirty of the city’s coolest bars, restaurants and venues including Hawksmoor, The Pen and Pencil, El Gato Negro, Cane & Grain, Mojo, Gorilla, Trof, Crazy Pedros, Cottonopolis and The Alchemist.

A must-do for any cocktail lover, the festival will play centre stage to a host of one-off events, tasting dinners, masterclass sessions, competitions and parties to celebrate the art of mixing drinks and the city’s wonderful cocktail scene.

Events include The Savoy London’s World Famous ‘American Bar’ take over of El Gato Negro, a whiskey cocktail pairing dinner at Tariff  and Dale, and a Bourbon Masterclass and Blues Party at Fitzgerald.

In addition to the events programme, each of the venues will collaborate with one of the world’s best spirit brands on a one-off  exclusive cocktail menu. Available for the week of the festival, each cocktail is just £4.50 and available exclusively to festival wristband holders only.

There is also a series of events, tastings and masterclasses designed for bartenders and those who work in the drinks industry including  a ‘War of Roses’ cocktail competition which will see them pitted against their trans-Pennine counterparts to decide whether Manchester or Leeds is the cocktail capital of north.

“Manchester is one of the UK’s greatest destinations for cocktail lovers,” says Manchester Loves Cocktails founder Nick Fox. “The  standard of cocktails in the city is on a par with top bars of London and New York. The north definitely has a lot to offer and I want us  to celebrate that fact with a week long cocktail festival.

“Over the 7 days we’ll be encouraging guests to ‘drink better, not more’ by exploring the story behind people’s favourite spirits, as  well as some spirits they may have not come across before with tasting masterclasses and events throughout the whole week.”

To gain access to the events running throughout the festival and to purchase cocktails at the discounted price of £4.50, you will need to purchase wristbands which cost £10 each. Trade wristbands are available for those that work in the bar industry at a discounted price of £5. Proof of employment must be shown on collection.

25p of the price of each wristband sold will be donated to the charity Hospitality Action, the trade charity for people of all ages, working and retired, from the hospitality industry.

Tickets (wristbands)

ilovemcr.fatsoma.com/promotions/jbmb856y/manchester-loves-cocktails-2016

The festival runs from August 8-14 2016. For a full list of bars and restaurants taking part visit www.lovescocktails.co.uk

Follow @MCRCocktails #MLC16