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Catfish and the Bottlemen at Heaton Park, Manchester – support acts, stage times and more

Manifest nothing but excitement and positivity, people.

Danny Jones - 12th June 2025

One of the most momentous live music weekends in Manchester is fast approaching, as even before Parklife 2025 gets underway, we must first prepare to welcome Catfish and the Bottlemen.

The Welsh indie rock band remains one of Britain’s biggest and best contemporary exports, even with a fairly substantial hiatus; the proof is in the pudding too, with their huge Heaton Park headline gig selling out and the fandom not fading even one iota in the time between their last album and now.

Although there have been some genuine concerns that the massive outdoor gig could be cancelled, it looks as though we’re in the clear and it will, indeed, be ‘Showtime’ once again.

With that in mind, we thought put together a gig guide of everything you need to know ahead of Catfish at Heaton Park for their Manchester comeback.

Catfish and the Bottlemen at Heaton Park – all the important info

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— Catfish&theBottlemen (@thebottlemen) September 29, 2024

Are there tickets left for Catfish at Heaton Park?

We hate to be the bearers of bad news, but unsurprisingly, Catfish’s Heaton Park – their first Manchester headline gig in many years – sold out very quickly.

On the other hand, you’ll be glad to hear that there are some official resale tickets and VIP packages listed on Ticketmaster.

You can grab your tickets HERE and, of course, you can always keep your eye out for spares on trusted resellers like Twickets and TwicketSwap. Proceed with caution, though, and don’t risk getting stung.

Support acts

Now, for those who don’t know who is supporting Catfish and the Bottlemen at Heaton Park, you’re in for an absolute treat, because this is a great little lineup that includes a much-loved Manchester band.

As well as a set from London-based DJ and producer Katie Owen to kick off the day, local legends and fellow indie rock favourites James are the main warm-up act.

Given the scenes we saw at their sell-out Piece Hall shows, they could easily pack out this place themselves, especially now we know why frontman Tim Booth loves crowd-surfing so much. You can also read our recent interview with founding member and bass player, Jim Glennie.

Stage times for Catfish’s Manchester show

In terms of when you can expect the action to get underway, Katie Owen is expected to get underway right from doors at 5pm until approximately 7:05pm; there will then be a roughly 25-minute interval before James take to the stage at 7:30pm.

Following a slightly longer break in play, the main event kicks into gear at 9pm, with Catfish expected to play a roughly 1h30m set.

Curfew is at 11pm, so you can expect people to start filing out of the park promptly after the end of the show. We’d also urge attendees to arrive nice and early and get in the queue from 4:30pm.

Setlist

Now, while the setlist obviously hasn’t been confirmed yet (that would spoil the fun now, wouldn’t it?), for the more impatient among you who are trying to figure out what the boys might play, you can check out the most recent running order of tracks from their comeback at Reading Festival last year on Setlist.fm.

It looks a little something like this:

Intro: ‘Aint That a Kick in the Head’ (Dean Martin song) and ‘Helter Skelter’ (The Beatles song)

Longshot
Kathleen
Cocoon
Soundcheck
Pacifier
Twice
Fallout (‘Bartender and the Thief’ snippet in outro)
2all
Rango
Outside
Fluctuate
7 (Extended outro)
Cocoon

Who knows what the encore will be at this point, but one thing we will see is that the above setlist will surely include their most recent song ‘Showtime’ as well as persistent die-hard fan favourite ‘ASA’, which was recently released as a single at long last – maybe a bit of ‘Glasgow’ and ‘Hourglass’ too.

To be fair, we’d be happy with just about any of their tracks.

How to get to Heaton Park

Last but not least, if you’ve never been to the massive green space before, your best bet is to travel via tram or other Bee Network public transport. Metrolink services will be running direct from Victoria to the venue during the day, and thankfully, it’s just a case of getting off at the Heaton Park tram stop itself.

From there, you can enter the event site via the North Gate; after the party is over, the Bowker Vale tram stop located near the East Gate is your quickest exit. Please also be mindful that Heaton Park station will also be closed from 9pm due to help with congestion and safety reasons.

Otherwise, the usual Big Green Coaches will also be running from the city centre, which can be booked in advance, and taxis home will be available from Blackley New Road and along Bury Old Road.

There is also official car parking for the site – you can reserve your spot online from £16.80.

And that should be just all the important key information you need to know ahead of what is sure to be a memorable night. Touch wood and keep everything crossed, folks…