I hold my hands up, me and Nicole are both not just Tech Geeks but we’re also a bit of a Friends geek too. We just couldn’t miss up the opportunity to get together when I was back over from Turkey to go to the Friends Fest in Heaton Park.
So here’s how the day went…
After a tasty McDonald’s breakfast in Manchester city centre, we collected our train tickets in Manchester Piccadilly and arrived for when the doors opened.
According to BBC, Friends is the UK’s most popular subscription streaming show so you can imagine why we wanted to arrive for when the doors opened… we just knew the event would be so popular. We were pretty lucky the weather was sunny considering it was all set up outdoors.
After a quick wander around the site to get our bearings, we were soon in the queue for our first photo op. The whole place was actually quite a lot smaller than we thought it would be so getting our bearings didn’t take long however there was still plenty to see and do.
Our first photo op was Ross and Rachel’s Vegas Wedding Chapel. There you can see a replica stand of the iconic Vegas chapel with the option to dress up with clothes and wigs so you can put yourself directly in the scene. We didn’t hold back on this one as you can see…
Next up we made our way to Central Perk which was a replica of the famous fictional cafe. There were so many photo opportunities from the famous logo on the window, the menu chalk board and of course that orange sofa with the umbrellas!
The whole day wasn’t just about photo ops and fancy wigs though, there was a great selection of lovely food and drinks stands. Monica’s diner had to be my favourite! Then in the centre of all this was a big stage, with rows of deck chairs and tables, giving the perfect chill out space to watch clips of the most iconic Friends moments.
There was also plenty of shops filled with all the Friends merchandise you could think of; clothes, hoodies, notebooks, posters, mugs, and loads more.
Last but not least, we booked our time slot for the all important session, the set tour. Here we got to see a made to measure Monica’s apartment and also Joey and Chandler’s apartment – where you can recreate your favourite scenes. In this part of the festival, you get to see the museum, where there are genuine Friends costumes and items used in filming such as Phoebe’s guitar.
Overall, me and Nicole had a blast. The Friends Fest provided loads of opportunities to take photos, visit detailed replicas and socialise with like-minded people who love the show just as much as we did.
Check out what the Geeks got up to when visiting Paris to see Shakira here.