Everything that has happened at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena so far…

Manchester Co-op live, also called the ‘UK’s largest live entertainment arena’, was supposedly meant to open to public in April 2024 and has been having delays since. At first, the venue spoke out on its technical issues saying that it was unable to open due to them. 

The 23,000 people capacity venue was originally built to gain more big acts in other parts of the country, not just in London, including large events such as award shows. 

When the arena was due to open, the first act supposed to play there was Peter Kay and the performances were postponed with less than 48 hours of notice. The performances were re-scheduled however after the show the venue and it’s managers talked about how a venue of that size has to be ‘vigorously’ and harshly tested- because of this the performances due to play at the arena this year will setback the arena’s goals hugely. 

Due to the ongoing troubles with the venue, Gary Roden (the general manager) resigned from his placement and faced a backlash over his comments to the BBC that some small music venues were “poorly run” and talking about grassroot venues. Then Rebecca Kane Burton was appointed the interim general manager to take over. This caused lots to be said on various social media platforms such as X (known as Twitter). 

After this, recently, Co-op Live ‘reassured’ fans that shows for the US rapper, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and the American singer, Olivia Rodrigo’s performances on May 3 and 4 would still go ahead. These dates then got postponed on May 1 due to soundcheck problems, a little over an hour before Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was planning to perform. The venue’s response was mainly “Ticket holders can either hold on to their tickets or obtain a refund at point of purchase.”

The issues with the arena are ongoing at this point in time, and they are hoped to be resolved soon due to reports from the venue itself and the people running it, especially due to it hosting many popular artists lined up to play there over this year.