The first wave of acts has been officially announced for Outbreak Festival Manchester 2025 and the lineup is already shaping up to be a rager.
Having quickly established itself as the biggest celebration of hardcore, pop-punk and alternative in Greater Manchester, Outbreak Festival is growing fast, especially after a super successful pair of events earlier this year.
Broken down into summer and autumn events, the two lineups just gone had the likes of Hot Mulligan, American Football, Movements; Action Bronson, Soccer Mommy, comeback kings The Story So Far and many more take the stage. Summer 2025’s weekender is looking equally promising so far.
Landing back in Manchester on the 15 and 16 June, the next edition of Outbreak Fest will be here before you know it. That’s what we’re telling ourselves, anyway – we’re literally fidgeting with excitement.
Founded back in 2011 by two teenagers, Jordan Coupland and Lee Follows (and by teenagers, we’re talking literally 14), Outbreak is approaching a decade and a half on the live music circuit, having seen a noticeable ramp up in popularity over the past couple of years.
ADVERTISEMENT
Taking place over at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, more commonly known as the BEC Arena – a hugely underrated venue, by the way – the next summer lineup not only features shoegaze legends Slowdive, hardcore heavyweights Knocked Loose, as well Manchester’s genre-bending Maruja and more.
One of the best things about the festival is the mix of music on show too, with alternative hip-hop favourites Danny Brown and Denzel Curry both joining the lineup.
ADVERTISEMENT
Better still, this is just the tip of the iceberg: there are yet more artists to be confirmed and if previous years are anything to go by, there’ll be some big hitters still to come for the BEC over in Stretford.
Outbreak is also heading outdoors and to London’s Victoria Park for the first time ever later this year, with contemporary icons Turnstile already confirmed as the headliners for the one-day festival. Fire.
Outbreak comes to London Victoria Park for the first time on Friday 13th June 2025. A curated one day event headlined by @TURNSTILEHC , with many more artists still to be announced.
We can only pray that they will be making their way to Manchester too but even if not, a name this huge must mean there’s someone just as big coming to 0161, surely?
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign-up for pre-sale is already live with tickets going on sale from 10am this Thursday, 28 November; as for general admission, they go live at the same time on Friday (29 Nov).
You can get ready to smash and grab your tickets to see that incredible lineup at Outbreak Festival Manchester HERE – and believe us, it will be a smash and grab…
Local music legend Richard Ashcroft has teased his return to the studio after seemingly teasing new music on social media.
The Wigan icon remains one of the most revered Greater Manchester musicians around, from his years as The Verve frontman to his much-celebrated solo stuff.
However, it’s been a while since we’ve heard new music from Ashcroft, with his most recent release coming in the form of an acoustic collection of classics back in 2021; his last album, Natural Rebel, came out nearly seven whole years ago.
With that in mind, when we hopped on social media to see that the ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and ‘Lucky Man’ singer had uploaded a number of posts along with a date, it’s fair to say we got rather giddy.
The lyricist with the most luscious lips in the game.New Richard Ashcroft music looks to be on the way. (Credit: Richard Ashcroft via X)
Beginning the tease campaign earlier this month, Ashcroft posted nothing but the date “22.05.2025” on his X account, leaving fans scrambling around to try and dig up more details.
Then, shared just two days later, a glowing image of his face was revealed along with an identical caption in what looks to be a snapshot from a new music video, perhaps?
Sure enough, we got the left-hand image of that instantly recognisable pout on Monday, 19 May, accompanied not only by that same date and the ‘Lover’.
Although it’s still unclear as to whether this is the name of/album artwork for a long-awaited seventh studio LP or merely the title of a new lead single from whatever his next project is, all we know is Britpop fans are buzzing – us included.
We were already stoked to hear him confirmed as one of the support acts for the upcoming Oasis reunion shows late last year, and now there’s the prospect of hearing him play new material, we literally cannot wait for the summer.
The 53-year-old’s discography is rich enough as it is, but it feels like we’ve waited forever for a new record; that being said, we really do hope we’re getting ‘RA7’.
Regardless, Ashcroft has never disappointed on the live stage, with his landmark homecoming shows at Robin Park being nothing short of a massive deal for the town.
Here’s hoping we get a full album and a UK tour with plenty of Northern dates to boot. We don’t think that’s too much to ask for. Guess we’ll find out Thursday, 22 May.
Where does he rank among your favourite Manc musicians?
Two upcoming Manchester gigs are having a flash sale where you can get your hands on some very limited 2 for 1 tickets.
The two biggest arenas in Manchester are hosting exclusive discounts on two of the biggest upcoming Manchester gigs.
If you’re after tickets to Co-op Live’s offering you’ll have to act fast as they have a legend in attendance, quite literally, as John Legend is set to take to the stage on Thursday 29 May.
It’s a very special gig for the singer-songwriter as he celebrates 20 years of ‘Get Lifted’ where Mr. Legend will be playing tracks from his debut album like ‘Ordinary People’, sprinkling in more hits too.
AO Arena are also running a limited 2 for 1 ticket discount and we’re certain it’s about to get ‘Hot In Herre’ as St. Louis MC Nelly brings his UK tour to this very stage along with a troupe of famous stars.
Anyone interested in finding ‘Where The Party At’ doesn’t have to look much further than Saturday 7 June when Nelly brings his tour to Manchester with Eve, St. Lunatics, Jermaine Dupri and Fabolous.
Co-op Live is running a limited 2 for 1 offer on John Legend tickets.AO Arena have a 2 for 1 flash sale on tickets to see Nelly and special guests.Credit:Publicity Picture (via Supplied) / Flickr
‘Let Me Blow Ya Mind’ because these tickets are too good to pass on especially when you get the opportunity to see all these rap legends under the same roof for less than three figures at £90.
And we’re giving you the ‘Green Light’ about John Legend and his upcoming ‘Get Lifted – 20th Anniversary Tour’ when we say these 2 for 1 tickets total at £70, It’s ‘Written In The Stars’.
Anyone after 2 for 1 tickets for John Legend and his upcoming ‘Get Lifted – 20th Anniversary Tour’ can find this exclusive running until 28 May HERE.
And there’s no ‘Dilemma’ in sight as you can get 2 for 1 tickets to see Nelly and his music crew on their ‘Where The Party At’ tour HERE.
Danny Jones -
27th November 2024 
