Greater Manchester walking festival
- The GM Walking Festival returns Friday, May 1, billed as Greater Manchester's biggest celebration of walking and wheeling. - The festival runs events across the region starting May 1 to promote accessible walking. - Event listings emphasize guided walks, community health benefits, and inclusive routes for varied abilities (ilovemanchester.com).
Greater Manchester’s month-long walking festival is set to start on Friday, May 1, with more than 350 free events across the city region. (ilovemanchester.com) The 2026 programme runs from May 1 to May 31 as part of National Walking Month, and organizers say residents can search events by area, distance and route grading. (ilovemanchester.com) (gmwalking.co.uk) Greater Manchester Moving, the region’s active partnership, coordinates the festival with community groups, charities, local organizations and individual hosts. Every listed walk is free to join and group-led. (ilovemanchester.com) This year’s theme is “Celebrating Connected Communities,” with events framed around local exploration, social connection and health and wellbeing. Louise Robbins, strategic lead at Greater Manchester Moving, said the programme is meant to help people “discover new places to walk” and “people to walk with.” (ilovemanchester.com) The listings are built around access as much as distance. The festival website lets users filter for wheelchair-suitable routes, buggy-friendly walks, proximity to public transport, and walks near cafés or pubs. (gmwalking.co.uk) (ilovemanchester.com) Organizers have pitched the event as a way to make walking feel social and easier to start, especially for people new to walking groups. Event descriptions include neighbourhood strolls, longer guided routes and routes designed for different abilities and interests. (ilovemanchester.com) (walkingpost.com) The festival has been running since 2015, according to GM Ringway, and is now tied to National Walking Month each May. That history has turned it into a recurring fixture in Greater Manchester’s spring events calendar rather than a one-off campaign. (gmringway.org) Local partners are also using the festival to spotlight specific routes and projects. GM Ringway has announced two guided circular walks on sections of its long-distance trail, while Trafford is promoting borough walks through parks, waterways and neighbourhoods. (gmringway.org) (news4trafford.co.uk) The full programme is already live online ahead of the May 1 start, with filters aimed at helping people pick a route that matches how far they want to go and how they want to get there. (gmwalking.co.uk)
