After more than 300 walks in 31 days across May, the 2023 GM Walking Festival has come to a close.
Throughout May’s National Walking Month, 120 walking people and groups hosted over 300 walks across Greater Manchester to share the opportunity to explore local places and spread the joy of walking.
The 2023 edition of the festival saw a huge variety of walks, with everything from wellbeing walks hosted by Sale Sharks Foundation and wildflower walks with the Manchester and Salford Ramblers to dawn chorus birdsong walks led by the Woodland Trust and an Eid walk and picnic with MACFEST.
One of the participants Dorretta Maynard, part of the Trafford Age Well Board, described the walk as “one of the best walks [she’d] been on in a long time.”
Walk members enjoyed a variety of walking ‘recipes’ from the #WalkCreate WalkBook designed to inspire people to walk through sharing insights, stories, and ‘recipes’ about overcoming barriers and challenges to walking.
Louise Robbins, Strategic Lead for Walking and Active Environments at GreaterSport, said:
“Thank you to all the walk organisers and hosts, including schools, health services, established walking groups workplaces and many community organisations, who put something special on for the Festival.
“We were delighted to welcome all those people who joined a walk, particularly those who don’t walk regularly. We hope the GM Walking Festival has inspired you to walk more often. See you next year – and keep walking in between!”
From everyone at GM Walking, thank you to all those who hosted or took part in this year’s GM Walking Festival and helped to make it a huge success.
