Good Morning Cheshire! 👋
Nantwich goes full food-festival mode for three days straight, Crewe swaps trains for real ale, Wilmslow throws a street party, Warrington gets its Mela back and Tatton Park hosts Fearne Cotton’s wellness crowd. Grab your calendar and let’s dive in!
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🎉 What’s On In Cheshire
🗓️ Fri · 4 September
⭐ Editor's Pick
🍺 Crewe Rail Ale Festival (CRAF)
Fri 4-Sun 6 Sept, Crewe Heritage Centre
Over fifty cask ales, ciders and perries served up alongside the exhibits at Crewe Heritage Centre, run by the Xamra beer festival team with Champion Beer of Britain Premium Bitters judging and the miniature railway rides.
👉 Details
🍽️ Nantwich Food Festival 2026
Fri 4 Sept-Sun 6 Sept, Nantwich town centre
One of the UK’s biggest free-to-enter food festivals rolls into town for three days, with celebrity chef demos, two live music stages and around 200 stalls filling the market-style streets.
👉 Details
🎪 Wilmslow Street Fest
Fri 4 Sept, 5pm-9pm, Bank Square, Wilmslow
Free, family-friendly street festival with live music, global street food and each date’s own theme, transforming the town centre for the evening.
👉 Details
🥾 Bollington Walking Festival – Launch Event
Fri 4 Sept, 6:30pm, Bollington
The 16th Bollington Walking Festival kicks off with an evening launch walk followed by a pub visit, opening ten days of guided walks across the hills around Bollington and Macclesfield Forest.
👉 Details
🎸 TV Smith with Pete Bentham & The Acoustic Dinnerladies
Fri 4 Sept, The Saddle Inn, Chester
Punk legend TV Smith plays an intimate acoustic set at one of Chester’s best-loved live music pubs.
👉 Details
🤘 Blackmore’s Blood at Chester
Fri 4 Sept, The Live Rooms, Chester
A high-energy tribute night celebrating the riffs of Deep Purple and Rainbow.
👉 Details
🗓️ Sat · 5 September
⭐ Editor's Pick
🍽️ Nantwich Food Festival (Day 2)
Sat 5 Sept, 9am-7pm, Nantwich town centre
The festival’s biggest day, with the Reaseheath Food Theatre running chef demos throughout and two stages of live music.
👉 Details
🧘 Happy Place Festival
Sat 5 Sept-Sun 6 Sept, Tatton Park, Knutsford
Fearne Cotton’s wellbeing festival returns to Tatton Park with talks, yoga, workshops, live performances and a shopping village. Gates open 8.30am.
👉 Details
🎶 VultureFest 26
Sat 5 Sept, 4:30pm-11pm, Gauntlet Birds of Prey, Knutsford
An evening of live music from six independent acts, held outdoors at the eagle and vulture park to mark International Vulture Awareness Day, with all profits going to Gauntlet Conservation Trust’s vulture conservation work in Africa. (Entry to the Birds of Prey Centre itself is not included)
👉 Details
🍺 Crewe Rail Ale Festival (Day 2)
Sat 5 Sept, Crewe Heritage Centre
A full day among the exhibits, with rides on the miniature railway between pints.
👉 Details
🎉 Bingo Babes
Sat 5 Sept, Ellesmere Port Civic Hall
An 18+ adults-only bingo party night with drag performances, cheeky games and prizes, hosted by TV favourite David Potts.
👉 Details
🎡 Maggie’s Fest 2026
Sat 5 Sept, Brimstage Farm & Maze, Wirral
A family-friendly festival raising money for Maggie’s Wirral, with stalls, entertainment and a proper community day-out feel.
👉 Details
🚗 Lady Heyes Car Boot Sale
Sat 5 Sept, 9am-12pm, Lady Heyes Park, Frodsham
The much-loved monthly car boot returns for its final outing of the 2026 season, first Saturday morning bargain hunting at its best.
👉 Details
🧘 Mind Body Spirit & Wellness Weekend
Sat 5 Sept-Sun 6 Sept, Stockport Masonic Guildhall
Two days of workshops, talks and over 70 wellness exhibitors just over the county line.
👉 Details
🐻 Three Cheers for Pooh! Garden Story Trail
Runs to Sun 6 Sept, 10am-6pm, Tatton Park
The centenary Winnie-the-Pooh trail through Tatton’s summer gardens wraps up this weekend, honeypots, Poohsticks Bridge and all.
👉 Details
🌻 Whitegate Village Show
Sat 5 Sept, 11am-4.30pm, The Recreation Room, Whitegate
A classic village show with produce, craft and “just for fun” classes for all ages, plus public voting on favourites.
👉 Details
🪴 Hospice Plant Sale
Sat 5 Sept, 9am-12pm, Hoole Allotments, Chester
The final plant sale of the season at Hoole Allotments, geraniums, dahlias and shrubs galore, all for a good cause.
👉 Details
🗓️ Sun · 6 September
⭐ Editor's Pick
🎉 Warrington Mela
Sun 6 Sept, Queens Gardens, Warrington
A multicultural celebration of music, dance, food and performance from communities across the borough, with an international market featuring Indian, Korean, Turkish, Greek and Chinese cuisine.
👉 Details
🍽️ Nantwich Food Festival (Final Day)
Sun 6 Sept, 10am-5pm, Nantwich town centre
Last chance to catch the marquees, cookalong sessions and town centre entertainment before it wraps for another year.
👉 Details
🍺 Crewe Rail Ale Festival (Final Day)
Sun 6 Sept, Crewe Heritage Centre
The festival’s last session, set alongside Crewe North Junction where trains still sound their horns as they pass.
👉 Details
🎭 Nell Gwynn
Sun 6 Sept, 7pm, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester
The final performance of Storyhouse’s outdoor production about actor and royal mistress Nell Gwynn, closing out this year’s Grosvenor Park season.
👉 Details
🦉 Owls at The Hole In Wand Chester
Sun 6 Sept, 12pm-2pm, The Hole In Wand, Chester
A relaxed, family-friendly encounter with owls in the heart of the city.
👉 Details
🐶 Saughall Rotary Doggy Fun Day
Sun 6 Sept, 11am-3pm, Golden Jubilee Park, Saughall
A dog show with a difference, fun events for the pups, stalls for the humans and games for the kids. Free admission.
👉 Details
🗓️ REST OF THE WEEK
🖼️ Earth Photo 2026
Runs to Sun 27 Sept, Chester Zoo
An ongoing exhibition of striking environmental photography, worth building into a zoo day this week.
👉 Details
🎬 Reel Queer: Queer As Punk
Tue 8 Sept, 6pm, Storyhouse Cinema, Chester
Storyhouse’s monthly LGBTQIA+ cinema club, pay what you can from £4.
👉 Details
🎭 Girl From the North Country
Thu 10 Sept, 7pm, Storyhouse Theatre, Chester
Bob Dylan’s songbook woven into a Depression-era drama, screened as part of Storyhouse’s Stage on Screen programme.
👉 Details
🧺 LOCAL CRAFT MARKETS
Chester Makers Market – Sat 5 Sept, 10am-4pm | 👉 Details
Crewe Makers Market – Sat 5 Sept, 10am-3pm | 👉 Details
Rode Hall Farmers’ Market – Sat 5 Sept, 9am-1.30pm | 👉 Details
Nantwich Craft & Gift Fair – Sat 5 Sept | 👉 Details
Small Street Markets, Blakemere Village – Sun 6 Sept, 10am-4pm | 👉 Details
Knutsford Makers Market – Sun 6 Sept, 11am-4pm | 👉 Details
🗓️ DATES FOR THE DIARY
Truckfest North West, Cheshire Showground – Sat 12 Sept-Sun 13 Sept | 👉 Details
Cheshire Half Marathon, Capesthorne Hall – Sun 13 Sep | 👉 Details
R&B Classics in Chester Cathedral – Fri 18 Sep | 👉 Details
Dirty Dancing Outdoor Cinema, Arley Hall – Fri 18 Sep | 👉 Details
MBNA Chester Marathon, Half & 10K – Sun 11 Oct | 👉 Details
Run for Nature 2026, Chester Zoo – Sun 20 Sept | 👉 Details
💎 Hidden Gem: Alderley Edge & The Wizard, near Nether Alderley
Alderley Edge isn’t just a wooded sandstone ridge with cracking views over the Cheshire Plain; it’s the setting for one of the county’s best local legends.
The story goes that a farmer leading a white mare across the Edge was stopped by a mysterious old man who offered to buy the horse.
He led the farmer to the Iron Gates, a hidden entrance to the underworld, where a whole army of knights lay sleeping, waiting for the day England needed them. One knight had no horse. The farmer handed his over, was paid in treasure, and the gates sealed shut behind him.
The tale was first written down in 1805, and it’s the same legend that inspired Alderley Edge author Alan Garner to write The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
Whether or not you believe in sleeping knights, there’s something genuinely there underground. People have been mining copper here since the Bronze Age, and the National Trust’s waymarked Wizard’s Wander takes you past Engine Vein, Stormy Point and the Druids’ Circle, tracing the legend and the mining history side by side.
This particular week is the one to go. The Derbyshire Caving Club only open the mines to the public twice a year, and this autumn’s Open Weekend falls on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, 10am to 5pm (last admission 4pm).
You’ll be taken down in small groups, helmets and lights provided, through floodlit sections of Wood Mine, 4,000-year-old workings streaked with cobalt blue and green malachite. It’s not for the claustrophobic, but it’s a proper hidden Cheshire experience most people never get the chance to have.
Practical bits:
Start point: National Trust car park, Macclesfield Road, Nether Alderley, SK10 4UB (pay and display, free for NT members), right by the Wizard pub
Route: Wizard’s Wander, 1 mile, easy, 45 minutes to just over an hour
Terrain: Flat, surfaced and waymarked, with some gentle to moderate slopes and bumpy sections, suitable for pushchairs
Dogs: Welcome, but must be on leads during lambing/nesting season
Mine tour: Wood Mine, Sat 5-Sun 6 Sept, 10am-5pm, £8 adults / £6 seniors / £4 children / £14-22 family, book ahead online as slots fill up
Refreshments: The Wizard Tea-room and The Wizard pub, both right at the car park
That’s it for this week.
Thanks for reading The Cheshire Buzz! See you next Thursday – same time, same inbox.