Cocktails, Candlelight & Cowboys

Good Morning Cheshire! 👋 

It’s the last long weekend of summer, and the county’s determined to make it count. Congleton turns into one giant free jazz club for the weekend, Chester Racecourse goes full reggae carnival, and Chester Cathedral hosts candlelit tributes to Bowie and Adele back to back. Throw in Creamfields landing at Daresbury for its 20th year, a weekend of outdoor cinema at Tatton Park, and enough 80s and country discos to keep Chester’s nightlife going past midnight, and that’s your Bank Holiday sorted.

Let’s dive in!

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🎉 What’s On In Cheshire

🗓️ Fri · 28 August

🎪 Creamfields Opens
Fri 28 Aug, Daresbury
The UK’s biggest dance festival marks 20 years at its Cheshire home, with Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris and Fatboy Slim among the headliners over the long weekend.
👉 Details

🎤 Take That v Boyzone & Westlife: The Ultimate Boyband Battle
Fri 28 Aug, from 6:30pm, Village Warrington, Centre Park
Three boyband tributes going head-to-head, with a Party & Dine ticket (£25, 2-course meal) or Party-only ticket (£15). 18+.
👉 Details

🚤 Summer Family Fun at Anderton Boat Lift
Until Tue 1 Sept, Anderton Boat Lift, Northwich
Up to three children go free with each paying adult on the Edwin Clark trip boat, alongside drop-in activity days (£2.50 per child) of storytelling, canal-building challenges and craft sessions.
👉 Details

🎸 Dressed to Kill: Kiss Tribute
Fri 28 Aug, 7pm, Holy Diver, Stockport
Full costumes and makeup, a proper theatrical tribute night. Stockport rather than Cheshire, though it fits your standing Stockport-fringe coverage.
👉 Details

🎸 Bowie by Candlelight
Fri 28 Aug, 7:30pm (doors 6:45pm), Chester Cathedral
Tribute act David Live brings the Ziggy Stardust years to life under candlelight, from Starman to Let’s Dance.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sat · 29 August

🍹 Rum & Reggae Chester
Sat 29 Aug, 11am-midnight, Chester Racecourse
Chester’s first major outdoor music festival in 15 years, headlined by reggae legends Aswad, with rum bars and a full Caribbean street food village.
👉 Details

🕺 80s Day Disco: Warrington
Sat 29 Aug, 3pm-8pm, Level Vodka Bar and Nightclub, Warrington
A daytime disco through Bowie, Madonna, Queen and Prince, 18+, tickets are selling out fast so be quick!
👉 Details

🌾 Summer Country Fayre at the Farm (Day 1)
Sat 29 Aug, 11am-4pm, Tatton Park, Knutsford
Traditional country crafts, egg-and-spoon races, falconry and a farm BBQ to mark the end of the school holidays.
👉 Details

🤠 Country Day Party: Chester
Sat 29 Aug, 3pm-8pm, Rosies, Northgate Street, Chester
A daytime country hoedown through Dolly Parton, Morgan Wallen and Shania Twain, cowboy hats encouraged. 18+, ticket tiers largely sold through already.
👉 Details

💿 Club Tropicana: The UK’s Biggest 80s Night
Sat 29 Aug, 11pm, The Live Rooms, Station Road, Chester
Wham!, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and more, a proper Bank Holiday 80s send-off to close the night.
👉 Details

💿 The Music of Adele by Candlelight
Sat 29 Aug, 7:30pm (doors 6:45pm), Chester Cathedral
J’Adele and her live band bring Rolling in the Deep, Someone Like You and more to the candlelit cathedral.
👉 Details

🎬 Outdoor Cinema: Mamma Mia
Sat 29 Aug, 7pm, Tatton Park, Knutsford
Open-air singalong screening under the stars in the parkland.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sun · 30 August

⚓ Canal Town Bank Holiday
Sun 30 Aug, 10am-4pm, National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
This Bank Holiday edition see’s lock and engine demonstrations, guided tours and a Young Explorer’s trail.
👉 Details

🤠 Oddfellows Bank Holiday Hoedown
Sun 30 Aug, 2pm-midnight, Oddfellows, Lower Bridge Street, Chester
A Country & Western afternoon in the Secret Garden, with live music from Rob Wheeler, a themed welcome cocktail and reserved seating for £20.
👉 Details

🎪 Malpas Summer Fayre
Sun 30 Aug, 11am-6pm, Malpas Recreation Ground
A proper village fayre followed by entertainment spilling into The Lion, The Crown and The Old Fire Station.
👉 Details

🎉 Loud & Local Festival
Sun 30 Aug, 12pm, Alexander’s Live, Chester
A day of homegrown Chester talent across live bands and DJ sets.
👉 Details

🌾 Bunbury Watermill Open Afternoon
Sun 30 Aug, 1pm-5pm, Bunbury Watermill, Bunbury
Guided 45-minute tours of the working 1840s watermill, finishing with tea and cake by the pond.
👉 Details

🌾 Summer Country Fayre at the Farm (Day 2)
Sun 30 Aug, 11am-4pm, Tatton Park, Knutsford
Traditional country crafts and fayre activities continue through the weekend.
👉 Details

🗓️ REST OF THE WEEK

🚤 Summer Family Fun at Anderton Boat Lift
Until Tue 1 Sept, Anderton Boat Lift, Northwich
Up to three children go free with each paying adult on the Edwin Clark trip boat, alongside drop-in activity days (£2.50 per child) of storytelling, canal-building challenges and craft sessions.
👉 Details

🐴 Cheshire Horse Sanctuary Open Day
Mon 31 Aug (Bank Holiday), 11am-5pm, The Six Acres, Picton Gorse Lane, Chester
Meet the rescue horses, plus animal encounters, a fun dog show, funfair, stalls and face painting. Just £1 entry, kids go free.
👉 Details

🚂 Classic Cars and Steam Trains Day
Mon 31 Aug, 11am-4pm, Apedale Valley Light Railway
Pre-2001 classic cars alongside steam engines in action. This is just across the border in Chesterton, Staffordshire, near Newcastle-under-Lyme, but worth the mention f you fancy it.
👉 Details

🌾 Summer Country Fayre at the Farm (final day)
Mon 31 Aug (Bank Holiday), 11am-4pm, Tatton Park, Knutsford
Last chance to catch the falconry, circus skills and traditional races before the farm’s summer season winds down.
👉 Details

🎭 Nell Gwynn
Tue 1-Thu 3 Sept, evenings, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester
Storyhouse’s Restoration comedy enters its final week in the park, closing the 2026 season on 6 September.
👉 Details

🧺 LOCAL CRAFT MARKETS

• Congleton Makers Market – Sat 29 Aug, 10am-4pm | 👉 Details

• Treacle Market, Macclesfield – Sun 30 Aug, 10am-3:30pm | 👉 Details

• Blakemere Car Boot Sale – Sun 30 Aug, from 7am | 👉 Details

🗓️ DATES FOR THE DIARY

• Nantwich Food Festival – Fri 4 Sep-Sun 6 Sep | 👉 Details

• Crewe Rail Ale Festival (CRAF) – Fri 4 Sep | 👉 Details

• Warrington Mela – Sun 6 Sep | 👉 Details

• Port Sunlight International Piano Festival – Sat 26 Sep-Sun 27 Sep | 👉 Details

💎 Hidden Gem: Little Moreton Hall, near Congleton

If you’re heading to Congleton for the Jazz and Blues Festival this weekend, it’s worth building the day around this too. Little Moreton Hall is one of the most photographed buildings in Cheshire for good reason: a black-and-white timber-framed Tudor manor that leans and wobbles in every direction, surrounded by a genuine moat, and somehow still standing after 500 years.

Inside, the Long Gallery is the highlight, a top-floor room that runs the full length of the house with a floor so uneven it’s genuinely disorientating to walk across. Look out for an inscription scratched into the glass by a grieving Victorian workman, a small but sobering detail among all the wonky charm.

Outside, there’s a knot garden based on a Tudor design, an orchard just across the moat, and a canalside walk along the Macclesfield Canal right from the car park if you want to stretch your legs afterwards.

It’s a proper family day out rather than a quick stop: narrow staircases and uneven floors mean it’s not buggy-friendly inside, but there’s plenty of space to park one and carry younger kids through.

Practical bits:

• Where: Newcastle Road, Congleton, CW12 4SD, on the A34

• Opening: Daily, 10:30am-4pm, until Monday 31 August (worth checking their site for autumn hours after that)

• Cost: Free for National Trust members; adults around £10-11, family tickets available for non-members

• Facilities: Two tea rooms, a second-hand bookshop, toilets

• Dogs: Assistance dogs only inside the Hall and garden; other dogs on leads welcome on the front lawn and canalside path

🔗 Little Moreton Hall

That’s it for this week.

Thanks for reading The Cheshire Buzz! See you next Thursday – same time, same inbox.