Prides, Parades & Petrolheads

Good Morning Cheshire! 👋 

Grab your rosette, your race number or your rubber duck, because this is a proper bumper weekend. Both Nantwich and Congleton throw their Pride celebrations on Saturday, Northwich’s river turns into a dragon boat battleground, and there’s a full-on pop festival at Sandbach Cricket Club to round it off. Add in three classic car and vehicle shows, a ghost hunt at Hack Green, and Chester Cathedral going full concert hall three nights running, and you’ve got more on than most weeks manage in a month.

Let’s dive in!

Jump to:FriSatSunRest of Week

🎉 What’s On In Cheshire

🗓️ Fri · 17 July

🎶 Mamma Mia! Summer Soirée
Fri 17 Jul, 7pm-midnight, Heaton House Farm, Rushton Spencer, Macclesfield
An ABBA tribute night with Greek-inspired street food, mini desserts and DJ party music to close. £45pp, ticketed.
👉 Details

🎤 Ricky Tomlinson: Retirement Tour My Ar*e!!
Fri 17 Jul, doors 7:15pm, Owleywood Recreation Centre, Weaverham, Northwich
The Royle Family and Brookside star talks life and career in conversation with BBC Radio Merseyside’s Asa Murphy, with a meet and greet and signed photo included.
👉 Details

🧀 French Cheese & Wine Evening
Fri 17 Jul, The Cheese Yard, Knutsford
A guided tasting evening of French cheeses paired with wine at the town’s specialist cheesemonger.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sat · 18 July

🚗 Middlewich Classic Car and Bike Show
Sat 18-Sun 19 Jul, 8am-5pm, Harbutts Field, King Street, Middlewich
Classic cars and bikes on display with food and goods stalls.
👉 Details

🏳️‍🌈 Nantwich Pride
Sat 18 Jul, from 11am, Nantwich Square & Civic Hall
Music, dancing and family-friendly entertainment in the town square followed by a parade to the Civic Hall for live acts and performances.
👉 Details

🏳️‍🌈 Congleton Pride 2026
Sat 18 Jul, 10am-5pm, High Street, Congleton
The town’s 7th annual Pride event with a day of celebration and entertainment on the High Street.
👉 Details

🎪 BACHFEST 2026
Sat 18 Jul, 3pm-11pm, Sandbach Cricket Club
A family-friendly pop festival back for its third year, with tribute sets including Ariana Grande, Spice Girls and a 90s band. Early bird tickets from £15 adult.
👉 Details

🧠 Mind Fest
Sat 18 Jul, 2pm-11pm, Butchers Stile Playing Field, Davenham, Northwich
A DJ, four live bands, food stalls, bars and a children’s fair, raising funds for Mid Cheshire Mind.
👉 Details

🏃 Tatton Park 5k & 10k
Sat 18 Jul, 8:45am start, Tatton Park, Knutsford
A road-closed, chip-timed run through the deer park, raising funds for The Christie Charity.
👉 Details

🍻 Spitting Feathers Beer Festival
Sat 18 Jul, Brewery HQ, Waverton, Chester
The brewery’s July tradition returns with live bands, a hog roast and the full range of Spitting Feathers cask and keg beers, raising money for local charities.
👉 Details

🐐 Dinosaurs in the Hidden Garden
Runs to Sun 6 Sep, Bents Garden & Home, Warrington
Life-sized, realistically moving dinosaurs take over the pathways of Bents’ Hidden Garden, with interactive activity tents along the trail.
👉 Details

🎭 Warrington Arts Festival
Various dates through July, venues across Warrington
The wider festival programme surrounding the Mars installation, including talks, live music, film and family events.
👉 Details

🎨 Summer of Play
Sat 18 Jul onwards, 10:30am-4:30pm daily, Quarry Bank, Wilmslow
A season of soft play, storytelling, garden games and daily themed activities across the mill and gardens, running through to September.
👉 Details

🎻 Italian Candlelit Concert: With Love from Italy
Sat 18 Jul, 6:30pm-7:45pm, Chester Cathedral
Soprano, tenor, piano and string quartet perform Italian opera classics and iconic film music by candlelight.
👉 Details

🪩 80s Day Disco: Chester
Sat 18 Jul, 3pm-8pm, Rosies, Chester
A daytime disco playing wall-to-wall 80s classics from Madonna to Bon Jovi, under neon lights and disco balls. 18+.
👉 Details

👻 Ghost Watch: Hack Green Nuclear Bunker
Sat 18 Jul, 7pm-1am, Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker, near Nantwich
An overnight ghost hunt in one of the UK’s most reportedly haunted locations, with all equipment supplied.
👉 Details

🗓️ Sun · 19 July

🚂 Transport Day at The Peacock Railway
Sun 19 Jul, 11am-5pm, Crewe Road, Nantwich
Classic cars, military vehicles, tractors, fire engines and rides on the miniature railway.
👉 Details

🚤 Canal Town Summer Sundays
Sun 19 Jul, 10am-4pm, National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port
Costumed guides bring the docks to life with lock and engine demos, plus this summer’s themes of horse boating and canal music.
👉 Details

🧘 A Day of Wellbeing
Sun 19 Jul, 11am-5pm, Mercure Chester Abbots Well Hotel
A wellness event with talks, workshops and free parking, focused on self-care and relaxation.
👉 Details

🎪 Creative Crafters Fair & Witton Albion Charity Family Fun Day
Sun 19 Jul, 11am-5pm, Witton Albion FC, Wincham, Northwich
A bouncy castle, children’s rides, hook a duck, reptiles, face painting and a tug of truck for the dads, raising funds for North West Air Ambulance and Kasupe.
👉 Details

🐍 Whitesnake Tribute: Fakesnake
Sun 19 Jul, Empire, Warrington
A tribute night to Whitesnake’s rock classics. £5 advance, £10 on the door.
👉 Details

🏰 Outdoor Theatre: King Arthur and the Holy Fail
Sun 19 Jul, 7pm-9pm, Quarry Bank, Wilmslow
The Three Inch Fools present a comic take on Arthurian legend in the Walled Garden. Booking essential.
👉 Details

🏃 Sandbach 10K
Sun 19 Jul, from 10am, Sandbach Rugby Club
An annual road race through Sandbach, organised by Sandbach Striders.
👉 Details

🗓️ REST OF THE WEEK

🎭 Murder Mystery in the Park
From Tue 21 Jul, Grosvenor Park, Chester
A new interactive murder mystery experience joins the park’s summer programme, running through to September.
👉 Details

🕯️ The Drifters: Candlelight Concert
Thu 23 Jul, doors 6:45pm, Chester Cathedral
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group return to Chester Cathedral, performing hits including Saturday Night at the Movies and Under the Boardwalk by candlelight. Over 16s only.
👉 Details

🚐 Dubbed Out Festival
Thu 23-Sun 26 Jul, Royal Cheshire Showground, Tabley, near Knutsford
The North West’s biggest VW campervan family festival, with big top tents, live bands and DJs including Utah Saints, Republica and D:Ream.
👉 Details

🏹 Outlaws: A Robin Hood Story
Running to 23 Aug, evenings, Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, Chester
Storyhouse’s Ocean’s Eleven-style reimagining of Robin Hood continues its run in the park.
👉 Details

🧺 LOCAL CRAFT MARKETS

• Tarporley Makers Market – Sun 19 Jul, 11am-4pm | 👉 Details

• Craft Supplies Event, Winsford – Sat 18 Jul, 1pm-3pm | 👉 Details

🗓️ DATES FOR THE DIARY

• Together Again Festival – Fri 24-Sun 26 Jul | Bolesworth Castle 👉 Details

• Just So Festival – Fri 21-Sun 23 Aug | Rode Hall, near Congleton 👉 Details

• Windystock 2026 – Sat 25 Jul | Macclesfield 👉 Details

• Peter Pan – Tue 28 Jul-Sat 15 Aug | Grosvenor Park walkabout theatre 👉 Details

💎 Hidden Gem: Thurstaston Common & the Dee Estuary Cliff Walk

Thurstaston Common is 250 acres of heath, woodland and red sandstone between Frankby and Thurstaston, jointly cared for by the National Trust and Wirral Council. Climb to the top of Thurstaston Hill, at 298 feet one of the highest points on the whole peninsula, and the view opens right out across the Dee Estuary to the Clwydian Hills in Wales, with Liverpool’s skyline visible the other way on a clear day.

One walking guide summed up the payoff simply: “Panoramic views from a heathland crest, and the edge of a grand estuary.” That’s really the whole appeal in one line, heather and gorse underfoot, open sky, and a coastline that feels a world away from the rest of Cheshire’s countryside.

The route down from the common leads through The Dungeon, a surprising little sandstone ravine with its own miniature waterfall, before reaching the cliff tops above the estuary itself.

These aren’t dramatic sea cliffs, more crumbling red boulder clay over sandstone, but they’re steep enough to demand care, and genuinely unstable: the Dee cliffs erode by around 0.3 to 0.5 metres a year, with sections known to collapse onto the beach without warning. Stick to the marked paths and keep back from the edge.

Practical bits:

• Start point: Wirral Country Park car park, Station Road, Thurstaston, CH61 0HN

• Distance: Around 4 miles for the full common, Dungeon and cliff-top circuit

• Terrain: Mixed, woodland paths, open heath, some uneven sandstone underfoot, and unstable cliff edges to keep well back from

• Accessibility: Not suitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs on the full route, the parallel Wirral Way is a flatter, more accessible alternative along the same stretch of coast

• Time: Allow 2 to 2.5 hours

• Tides: Check tide times before heading onto the beach itself, the shore can flood right up to the cliff base at high water

• Food and drink: The Cottage Loaf, Telegraph Road, Thurstaston, right on the route back to the car park

🔗 Thurstaston Hill Circular – 5.5 mile route // 3.3 mile route

That’s it for this week.

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