Greater Manchester Walking Festival

Greater Manchester’s Walking Festival will return on Friday, May 1, 2026, with a month of free group walks and wheeling events across the city region. (ilovemanchester.com) The programme runs from May 1 to May 31 and lists more than 350 free events as part of National Walking Month. Organizers say people can search walks by distance, difficulty, wheelchair access, buggy-friendliness and nearby public transport. (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. The 2026 theme is “Celebrating Connected Communities.” (ilovemanchester.com) (gmringway.org) The event is built around led group walks rather than one-off headline attractions. Organizers say the aim is to make walking and wheeling feel social, local and easy to join for people who want to build more activity into daily life. (ilovemanchester.com) The festival has been running since 2015 and is now tied to National Walking Month each May. A separate call for 2026 event proposals said anyone could host a walk, with submissions for this year’s programme due by April 3. (gmringway.org) The listings show how broad the offer has become. Routes can be filtered for wheelchair access, short easy walks of up to 2 miles, buggy-friendly options, and walks near cafés, pubs, bus stops, Metrolink stops or train stations. (gmwalking.co.uk) The festival also works as a local organizing tool for borough groups. In Bury alone, local coverage said this year’s programme includes more than 70 volunteer-led and community-led walks during May. (uk.news.yahoo.com) Louise Robbins, strategic lead at Greater Manchester Moving, said the festival is meant to help people “explore their local area, discover new places to walk, people to walk with” and keep walking or wheeling beyond May. The month starts on May 1, but the structure is designed to outlast the calendar. (ilovemanchester.com)