Thousands expected at Eid in the Park celebrations

Thousands of people are expected to come together for prayers and to celebrate Eid at an event taking place across the weekend.

Eid in the Park, is taking place at Platt Fields Park in Fallowfield and is one of the biggest celebrations of Eid-al-Adha in Manchester. It runs until Sunday 20:00 BST.

Event organiser Hasan Hasan said the celebrations would include picnics in the park and a fairground.

Eid ul-Adha is one of the most important festivals in the Muslim calendar.

"It's going to be amazing," Hasan said, adding that it would be "a big celebration".

He said they usually had around 20,000 people attending.

The prayers were moved to indoor five-a-side football pitches inside Manchester City's former training ground at Platt Fields, which will provide a place to shelter due to the rain.

Mr Hasan said once the event finishes celebrations would continue at various restaurants on Wilmslow Road, known as Curry Mile, in Rusholme.

Rusholme councillor Rabnawaz Akbar said: "In the Islamic faith over the year we have two main celebration days. One is Eid-al-Fitr. That is after the month of fasting, Ramadan. The second one happens about ten weeks later - Eid-al-Adha, and that's happening today.

"It's a day where families want to get together, friends want to get together and neighbours want to get together."

He said the prayer normally took place outside but the weather meant they had to resort to their back-up plan of using the sports complex, with volunteers giving up their time to put out prayer mats.

"This event wouldn't go ahead without the volunteers," he added.

He said food played an important part in the celebrations and people would be bringing food from cuisines all over the world for the picnics later.

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