2022
A small group of Google Local Guides from Manchester met on a stunningly warm (and for Manchester, unusually rain-free) afternoon to explore the now-annual Manchester Flower Festival. This year it was a trail of ten main floral installations, with several fringe exhibits, side stalls, bars and market stalls.
The theme of each of the ten main installations was Manchester based - taking into account things such as Alan Turing and the invention of the computer;The Roman origins of Manchester;The rise of the Suffragette Movement in Manchester (women's right to vote); King Cotton and the Manchester textile industry; Manchester's status as the world's first industrialised city; The Hive, acknowledging the worker bee - the symbol of Manchester; LGBTQI+ equality and freedom; an iconic 'northerner' character - Hilda Ogden - from Britain's premier soap opera; a rain garden, celebrating (?!) Manchester's usually damp climate which contributed to its industrial rise; a mini and floralised version of Manchester's town hall, currently undergoing restoration; and a tribute to The Hacienda - probably the most iconic night club in Manchester in its day, and the home of The Manchester Music Scene.
We followed a distinct pre-planned route, provided on the paper maps available throughout the city centre, to ensure we didn't miss any installations - although we did stop for liquid and solid refreshment a couple of times during the afternoon.
You can see some of the photos taken by the the group here
@AdrianLunsong spent a considerable time making a video tour of the festival while we were walking around, and it can be found in his Go Loco Podcast here.
This event was organised by Google Local Guides, Manchester. We are an active group of Local Guides who try to arrange several face-to-face MeetUps during the year. Everyone is more than welcome to join us. Keep searching Manchester LG in Local Guides Connect for details of past and forthcoming events.
Thanks for organising the meetup @PeteMHW ! I certainly enjoyed wandering around the various places but I probably spent too much time trying to capture everything on video! 😅 I need to hold back a bit next time and just enjoy the atmosphere too! We were certainly very lucky with the weather and I hope that the good weather remains for a bit more.
For those too lazy to hit the link above, I've embedded the video below:
I couldn't get Peter in the video as he was playing host to another attendee and I was taking way too long to set up my camera stuff but in the second half when I caught up with the rest, you do see him pop up from time to time! 😆
My favourite is probably The Hive in St Ann's Square but that whole section was really nice and I liked that they put out a big chess board underneath the shade of a tree and it was rather popular with folks competing against each other!
@Tatys90 Do join in the events in Manchester. Peter has taken up the mantle of organising events these days but I am trying to put one together for July. Hopefully the weather will hold and we can do another photo walk around town.
Also, when replying, do tag the person you're talking to using the @ symbol plus their username so that they will get a notification... otherwise it's really easy to miss a reply on here! 😊
@Muemakelvin You can use the search box at the top of the Connect forum page to search for other Local Guides in your area e.g. Kenya. That will then show you posts from users that have included the search term "Kenya" in their post. And hopefully, that will help you find other Local Guides in your area. You can then send them a message to find out if there's an active local group for you to join in.
Also, keep monitoring the Meet-up section to see if there are any events getting organised in your local area. And you can also go to the Favourite Locations to set three favourite locations and posts with those geo tags will show up on your main page. I hope that helps! 😊
