A new free three-day event will celebrate our town's market credentials.

Macclesfield Town Council's grand plans to celebrate this summer in style with the first ever 1261 Festival, hits the streets this coming weekend between Friday 28 and Sunday 30 June.

Named for the town's charter year, when it was granted a market, a fair and a court, the 1261 Festival will be a celebration of Macclesfield's creativity and community. Certainly, celebrating the market and festivities parts of the 13th century charter.

(Image - Room for Comics)

The free family event days put on by the Town Council are extremely popular, but the 1261 Festival will have something for everyone with music, art, workshops, craft, food and drink, talks, walks, performances and a parade.

Kicking the festival weekend off on the Friday night is 1261: The After Party. Co-ordinated by Choose Macc, who also run the very popular Party in the Pews Festival at Christ Church.

The musical element will cover all three days of the festival, from Friday to Sunday evening, encompassing more than six venues, twenty acts and ten gigs.

(Image - Choose Macc)

Taking place over all three days is the Macclesfield Town Council and Choose Macc official After Party taking place thanks to Levelling Up Funding from Chshire taking place in different venues over Central Macc including Mash, The Cave, Proper Sound, The Snow Goose and Cinemac.

Including artists such as Ben Ottewel from Gomez doing an intimate Friday night set at Proper Sounds and Ally from the Virginmary and Tommy from Space doing a set at Cinemac. All gigs are included on a £5 wrist which gains you entry too all of the gigs. 

Tickets available here https://www.cinemaclive.co.uk/shop/1261-festival/10.

(Image - Choose Macc)

Elsewhere on 1261 weekend, things to do will be starting on Saturday morning, with Macclesfield Library, who will be open to help tiny hands make colourful paper crowns and flags, ready to cheer on the One World Parade, which will sett off from the Town Hall at 11am.

Co-ordinated by Macclesfield Community ArtSpace the walking parade will be showcasing community groups from every corner of Macc, with some of the floats available to view in St. Michaels Church Yard after the parade.

There's plenty of other activities to keep you busy on Saturday, from Christ Church to the Silk Museum, a partial street closure on the lower end of Chestergate where you can soak up the atmosphere of the independent sellers and a few walking tours to take you everywhere in between.

(Image - Macclesfield Town Council)

When you're ready to take a breather there's deckchairs and benches waiting for you in Market Place amongst our food and drink vendors or just take a stroll and enjoy the street entertainers with a take-away from your favourite Macc coffee shop.

To round off the weekend head to the iconic Treacle Market on Sunday from 10am – pick up a recovery breakfast, enjoy a mooch around the dozens of stalls and track down the perfect souvenir to remember the festival by.

The Town Council have also partnered with D&G and High Peak Buses, to put on free buses around Macclesfield on Saturday 29th June. Those with a concessionary pass still need to show it, but the following routes are all free to travel on – 3,10, 19, 19A and 14, 14A.

Events Officer for Macclesfield Town Council, Rachael Higham says "We're so excited to be bringing a weekend of great entertainment to Macc. There's so much amazing local talent we want to put on show, whether its through a workshop, a group in the parade, a venue or an exhibition - it's really important to celebrate what we've got right here on our doorstep."

Paper programmes filled with 26 pages of things to do, are available from the Visitor Information Centre on Market Place during the week, or from the Market Place on Saturday. A digital copy, can be found on the Town Council website or by following this link.

From Treacle to Silk, Pandas to Potatoes, and John Mayall to Ian Curtis there is a lot that makes us Macclesfield – so let's put on a bit of a show. For more information sign up to the Town Council's mailing list, or check out the What's On Page both can be found on the homepage of their website.