Things to do this weekend in and around Manchester with kids

Saturday is your best bet for outdoor festivals, especially earlier in the day before the rain settles in. Middlewood Locks Fest is running from 3pm to 9pm and it's genuinely brilliant for families. You get live music, face painting, arts and crafts, street food, and even canoeing if your kids fancy trying something different. There's also a fire installation at dusk which is properly atmospheric. It's free to enter, and you can arrive whenever suits your crew.

If you're up for a drive to Eccles, the Salford Community Leisure Summer Festival at Cleavley Running Track is also on Saturday. It's another free outdoor event put on by local people, so it tends to have a proper community feel rather than being corporate. And the Ultimate Bounce Family Fun Weekend kicks off on Saturday too, running through Sunday. This one's all giant inflatables, bouncy castles, obstacle courses and fairground rides. Free entry makes a big difference when you're trying to keep costs down.

Manchester's got some real draws for kids who like to explore and learn without breaking the bank. The Manchester Museum is free to get into, which means you can spend as long as you need wandering through the dinosaur galleries or getting up close to the Egyptian mummies. It's the kind of place where a toddler might spend twenty minutes staring at one skeleton while your teenager reads every label. There's a café if you need a coffee break, toilets scattered about, and a car park that accepts Blue Badge holders, so you're not wrestling a pushchair up six flights of stairs.

If your kids are the type who want to know how things actually work, the Science and Industry Museum sits in a historic Victorian railway station and does exactly what it says on the tin. It's free to enter, with hands-on exhibits that tend to keep children occupied for hours. This summer, it's also home to the brand-new Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos exhibition, an interactive adventure packed with space-themed challenges, experiments and plenty of laugh-out-loud science. The museum offers disabled parking nearby and is easy to reach by public transport, making it a brilliant choice for an indoor family day out.

For something a bit different this weekend, the So Hong Kong Summer Festival takes over Aviva Studios on 5 July. It's free to get in and brings together authentic street food, live music, shopping and family entertainment under one roof. If your kids are curious about different cultures - or you just fancy trying some delicious Hong Kongese food - it's well worth adding to your weekend plans.

If the rain doesn't ease, don't panic. Adventure Forest Play Centre in Trafford Park has soft play, a football pitch and a mini quad track, so even restless kids find something. They do monthly sessions for children with additional needs too, which matters for families looking for a supportive space. The café serves fresh homemade food, and they've got proper facilities with baby change and nappy bins.

Urban Playground in Manchester Arndale city centre is tech-enabled mini golf and multiplayer games. It's higher on the cost side, but the bonus points system and prizes keep kids interested, and there's nowhere to escape to, so you're not chasing them round a massive space. The car park is right there, and toilets are accessible throughout the venue. If you've got a rainy Sunday afternoon and your kids need burning off energy rather than sitting still, Everyman Manchester St. John's also does Toddler Club screenings, which take the pressure off if little ones get restless during a film.