Open Data Manchester meetup

Joy Diversion is a "choose your own adventure" exploration of the centre of Manchester and Salford.

Whether you're drawn to urban architecture, unexplored places or odd encounters, Joy Diversion gives you permission to go and do it.

Open Data Manchester has been running Joy Diversions, in Manchester and elsewhere in the UK, since 2018. What started out as a fun way of mapping places on OpenStreetMap has turned into an opportunity to team up with fellow explorers, devise a mission, and go and explore.

## What you'll get

Each team is issued an explorer's backpack containing everything you need for an adventure. We give you maps to help you along the way — though they're a hundred years out of date — and an avatar to guide you.
Teams must gather evidence: photos, artefacts and stories of their adventure, to share with everyone else once you're back.

## You will need

• Yourself
• Comfortable walking shoes, or whatever you need to get around
• Weather-appropriate clothing (hopefully sun cream rather than waterproofs!)
• Water

Joy Diversion is free, but do bring along biscuits and cake if you fancy it :)

It is a great way to meet new people, spend time with friends or entertain the family. All whilst finding bits of our city you never knew existed.

After a summer of record temperatures, A&E admissions and time without rainfall, it is perhaps no surprise that the number of wildfires in England and Wales this year has already reached the total recorded for the whole of 2025. This prompted the UK Government to issue a Severe Alert which people received on their phones last Friday (14th August).

A major incident was declared by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue on 13 July as they responded to a fire on moorland near Dove Stone Reservoir on Saddleworth Moor. A separate fire started the following day near Swineshaw Reservoir at Glossop, and the multi-agency team tackling both incidents was only stood down on 3 August, though firefighters remained there to continue monitoring conditions.

Many of us can only look on, see the smoke and try to decide whether or not to close our windows, but many are doing their part by trying to understand the conditions that make wildfires possible, the impacts they can have on people and planet, and what we can do to prevent them.

We will hear from them this evening, helping us all understand what wildfires, and extreme heat, mean for people in the UK and beyond.

If you have experience, research or data on wildfires that you would like to share, get in touch.

### LOCATION

Altogether Otherwise, M4 4BB