Why The Southern Fairies From VIVA Agree With Manchester Taking The Title For The Best City In The U.K.

We all knew Manchester has something special and in our hearts it has always been the best city in the U.K., but recently, it has been named as U.K.’s top city to live in, and we couldn’t agree more.

We put together a number of reasons which prove that Manchester does live up to its expectations.

First of all, Manchester love their restaurants and food; (it even has British Pie Week!) Manchester has the fastest growing food and drink scene in the country, with a variety of restaurants and bars based throughout the city and meeting everyone’s needs and expectations. The Northern Quarter bars are great for nights out and fancy cocktails, but you will also find amazing and varied places to grab a bite in a laid back or a posh venue. Some of our favourite places in the NQ are Hula, Walrus and Lammar’s bar. If you have ever gone on a night out in Manchester, you will agree that the party scene is incredible and Mancunians are party animals.

Shortlist Magazine has recently named Manchester ‘the best place to live in as a man’, due to its great pubs, access to outdoors, low crime rate and of course, the football scene. However, we could say women are pretty happy in the city too; besides the good looking men, another reason might be the wide range of shops and boutiques, from high street, to vintage and luxury. Another argument might be that fact that we are so close to one of Europe’s biggest shopping centres, our one and only, Trafford Centre.

Arts and culture are another strong point for Manchester; with a wide variety of museums, galleries and theatre performances constantly available, you can always get a taste of culture in our city. Some noteworthy places are The Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester Museum, The Three Minute Theatre and The Whitworth, which was named ‘museum of the year’ in July.

The Manchester music scene is thriving, Manchester Arena being one of the top destinations in the North for amazing live music. Manchester is the birthplace of world famous bands such as Oasis and Take That but it also bring out new talent on the music scene with bands such as The Backhanders, Blossoms, Jonny Brown of Twisted Wheel or Bipolar Sunshine.

Our city was also the home of Tony Wilson “Mr. Manchester”, founder of revolutionary record label Factory Records, talented broadcaster who launched the careers of bands such as New Order and Happy Mondays.

We’ve got a few Southern fairies at VIVA HQ, and we must agree that people from up North are a little bit friendlier up here than down South and really welcoming; (kind of like Canadians?) Manchester also gains its vibe from more than 80.000 students who attend our prestigious universities and make our city one of the best places to be as a student.