“People work from home now and Friday drinks are less usual – it’s harder to get people to come out”Revellers in the Millstone pub in the Northern Quarter. (Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Whether Mad Friday still exists in 2025 seems to depend on where you are, and who you ask. And also the weather.

Frequent one of the ‘bar’ areas of the Christmas markets in Piccadilly Gardens and you’ll be met with a desolate wasteland of damp astroturf and booming dance music echoing dismally off a semi-circle of plyboard huts. Here, Mad Friday is dead on arrival.

Round the corner though, in the Millstone pub on Thomas Street, there is barely room to stand – let alone hear yourself think over the din of karaoke. “Come on Manchester, have a dance, it’s Christmas,” shouts one man during his rendition of 500 Miles by the Pretenders, and half the crowd – who look like they’ve been there for hours – obey his command.

The last Friday before Christmas, when much of the population are downing tools and sacking off work until the New Year, has something of a reputation. Think crowds spilling out of offices and into the nearest bar, a frisson of recklessness in the air as you end up elbow to elbow with the colleague you fancy, or getting together with friends for one last drink before they are swallowed up by their families and turned into children again by rounds of Scrabble and Christmas jumpers.

But does this rosy image of one last hurrah really exist in reality? It didn’t seem to come true last year, when the Manchester Evening News walked street after street full of empty tables – though admittedly the fine drizzle won’t have helped.

This year’s sojourn around town painted a slightly more optimistic picture – though still, it depended on who you asked.

Staff at the bars dotted around the markets on Piccadilly Gardens were somewhat pessimistic. “Mad Friday? What’s mad is how quiet it is,” says Gary Beaumont.

After five years at the markets, Gary Beaumont says this year was one of the quietest he has seen (Image: Manchester Evening News)

The 57-year-old is behind the pumps at the Off-Piste Bar. He’s been working the markets for five years and says this is the quietest he has ever seen it.

“Normally you’d be standing in a queue that’s ten-person deep, and all the staff would be running around like headless chickens. Now we’re all standing around chatting – it shouldn’t be like that,” he reflected ruefully.

“It’s definitely quieter than normal. People have gone away for the weekend or home for Christmas, so there’s not so many tourists. It’s just Manchester people left now.”

Staff at the Tipsy Wheels bar opposite agree with Gary. “It’s not been as mentally busy as we expected,” said Daisy. “We have little waves where it’s busy for half an hour or so but it’s been inconsistent.”

It is her first year working at the markets, as it is for her colleague Aria. Both 22, they said their manager said it had been a lot busier last year.

Aria and Daisy, both 22, manning the Tipsy Wheels bar. (Image: Manchester Evening News)

“I think no-one has any money anymore – everyone’s broke, and everything’s really expensive,” said Daisy. “It’s getting to the middle of the month, people haven’t been paid for a while.

“People save things up for weekends now, Saturdays are our busiest days. But it depends on a lot of factors – if it’s raining, I might be told not to come in.”

Despite this, on a dry and cold evening, the markets were genuinely busy, and the bar area close to Boots and McDonalds was thronged with people drinking, dining, and looking festive. One group had come straight from work and were sipping G&Ts.

“I think we’ll have a few, and maybe go to the Northern Quarter,” said Grace. “I think Mad Friday’s still a thing.”

But her colleague Liam disagreed. “I think people are struggling a bit financially in the run up to Christmas,” he said. “At the start of December it was busier.”

Grace (23), Bella (28) and Liam (30) out for post-work drinks at the markets (Image: Manchester Evening News)

“I’ve talked about going out later, but I’m not sure I’ll go,” said Mia, who was there with family friends. “I’m a student and everything’s expensive.”

“I think the younger generation are keeping things going,” said Julie, the matriarch of the group in a Christmas Tree hat and reindeer glasses. “It’s a tradition.”

A group from Wigan enjoying the festivities (Image: Manchester Evening News)

But some in the Northern Quarter told a different tale. Emma Stevenson and her friend Georgina were sitting outside the Bay Horse Tavern on Thomas Street, on one of the few occupied tables.

The long-distance pals were out for a ‘quick drink’ as a rare gap in their schedules had opened up. “We’re not out, out,” said Georgina.

“I think demographically, Mad Friday is an older generation thing,” the pair, both 31, agreed. “It’s something for the 40 plus group.

“I think younger people are more sober-curious. They just don’t drink as much, and probably wouldn’t sit in a pub.”

Georgina and Emma, both 31, were having a quick catchup on Thomas Street (Image: Manchester Evening News)

This theory was borne out by several pubs the M.E.N visited. The Bay Horse Tavern had a healthy number of people inside, but most looked 35+ and appeared to have come straight from work and were sporting office gear. “This is standard for Mad Friday – it’s quite quiet, really,” said the barman.

The same was true of the Castle Hotel on Oldham Street. A cosy watering hole with wooden floors and a beautifully tiled bar, this too was comfortably busy, drinkers’ faces lit up by glowing strings of red fairy lights.

“It’s definitely not mad yet,” said the barman. “But it’s getting busier – people will come out later, from ten onwards.”

Natalie, 37, and Andrea, 58, were out with colleagues for work drinks and agreed that Mad Friday was ‘a generational thing’. “People work from home now and Friday drinks are less and less usual – it’s harder to get people to come out,” said Natalie.

“My son is 19 and he’s much more chilled and stays in. I look back at what I was doing when I was 19, we were going out.”

A group out for work drinks at the Castle Hotel on Oldham Street. (Image: Manchester Evening News)

From this mixed picture, it seems that Mad Friday does live on, but in fits and starts, in pockets of the city where the older ones are still doing it like they did in the coalition years: an in-the-office-five-days-a-week approach to working that young people just starting their careers in a post-COVID world, will likely not recognise at all.

Socialising at work must have felt easy, even natural, when you were all forced together, day in, day out. Today, asking someone to turn their camera on during a Teams call feels like effrontery, so it’s no wonder if we’re struggling to form these connections that facilitate even the quiet after-work pint – never mind a hours-long blowout at the bar.

But there was one place the M.E.N visited where the phenomenon is alive and kicking. Step inside the Millstone and you’ll be hit with a wall of heat and noise. Good luck getting to the bar as revellers are packed in like sardines – all the seats went hours ago.

There’s a rugby scrum around the bar, and people are singing and swaying to the deafening karaoke coming from a tiny stage in the corner. There are pints and Christmas jumpers in practically every direction.

Again, the crowd skews older, but younger people are starting to arrive, irresistibly pulled in by the revelry visible through steamed-up windows. “It’s popping off in here,” says one young man striding in with his friends.

Nicole Clancy and her friend have been in the Millstone since 2pm (Image: Ryan Jenkinson | Manchester Evening News)

Nicole Clancy and her friend have been in situ for more than five hours. “We got here at 2,” shouted the 59-year-old over the din. “I don’t think Mad Friday’s going anywhere.”