The AO Arena welcomed Andy Burnham and Blossoms today to celebrate the completion of its £50m redevelopment.
As the biggest indoor venue in the UK and one of the busiest in the world, the AO Arena is now working to even further elevate the guest experience, from start to finish.
Its huge investment has seen new features added like an increased standing floor capacity in the arena bowl itself, a brand new lower concourse bar area with capacity for 6,000 (plus new bars in the main concourse), and new entrances to make getting in and out of the arena the quickest in Europe.
Then there is the crowning jewel at the AO Arena, its new bar and restaurant The Mezz, set to open in March, which will welcome a new partnership with chefs Simon Rogan MBE and Tom Barnes of soon-to-open Skof.
To mark its monumental redevelopment, the AO Arena invited Stockport legends Blossoms to place their hands in cement on the concourse, leaving their mark permanently on the city’s most iconic venue.
ADVERTISEMENT
Blossoms said: “When the AO Arena opened again after Covid, we were the first band to play a gig here. We’re excited to celebrate the official topping out of the redevelopments and look forward to seeing what the future AO Arena has to offer.”
The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham was also in attendance to celebrate the landmark moment, speaking of all the shows he’s seen over the years (Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Elbow all highlights, apparently).
ADVERTISEMENT
The improvements to the venue aren’t just on a fan level either – work has also included a complete back of house overhaul including an artist green room, dressing rooms and crew facilities.
Andy Burnham and Blossoms attended the AO Arena today to celebrate the completion of its £50m transformation. Credit: SuppliedBlossoms placed their handprints in cement and spoke at the AO Arena today to celebrate the completion of its £50m transformation. Credit: Supplied
AO has also announced it is extending its naming rights partnership of the 21,000 capacity, 30-year-old venue all the way into 2030.
The AO Arena’s £50m transformation includes a new VIP entrance, a members only bar and restaurant, a brand new lower concourse, an improved focus on customer safety measures, and full wall wraps highlighting the venue’s iconic milestones.
ADVERTISEMENT
On the concourse, there’ll be a brand new food and drink offering, including handcrafted burgers, salt and pepper chicken and accompanying vegan options including smash meat-free burgers with vegan smoked applewood and vegan loaded fries, as well as vegan bratwurst with sauerkraut in a vegan brioche bun topped with crispy onions and served with vegan chilli cheese sauce.
Over the years, the AO Arena has welcomed the biggest names in music and sport, such as Prince, Elton John, New Order, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Billie Eilish, Oasis, Dua Lipa and The Courteeners, plus of course Peter Kay’s record-breaking 50+ date residency (which is still ongoing, by the way…), and has also played host to The Commonwealth Games, The Davis Cup, boxing bouts with Mike Tyson, Anthony Joshua, Ricky Hatton and much more.
Visited by more than one million people each year, the AO Arena is promising this will be its best year yet, raising tens of thousands of pounds and giving hundreds of hours to local community projects.
And coming up this year alone there’ll be more Peter Kay Live, The 1975, Bill Bailey, Niall Horan, Ne-Yo, and plenty more to be announced.
Review | ‘This is a night to remember, Manchester’ – Jason Derulo’s Co-op Live debut
Amy Williams
Who’s ready for another throwback night? Because this was absolutely a night already full of nostalgia and one to remember.
American singer-songwriter Jason Derulo hit Co-op Live last night as part of his ‘The Last Dance World Tour’, famous for hit songs like ‘Whatcha Say’, ‘Talk Dirty’, and ‘Savage Love’ – we all remember the Covid TikTok dance, don’t we? – as well as many more.
With over 250 million singles sold and tens of billions of streams, you best believe his one night in Manchester was sold out.
Running through the big hits and everything in between, he and his dancers made it a proper party atmosphere on this fine Saturday evening.
He did his throwback songs and more; from the moment he said, “We’re throwing it back to the beginning, back to 2009″, we knew his first debut single, ‘Whatcha Say’, was about to grace our ears, and that it did.
He also brought back absolute classics like ‘Ridin’ Solo’ (I definitely lost my voice during this one) In My Head and It Girl.
The Last Dance run of shows has seen him visit places like Leeds, London, Glasgow and Birmingham, finishing his UK leg right here in Manchester, before he carries on to Europe, but we’re confident our date had the best crowd so far.
And just when you think this couldn’t get any better, he brought his little boy on stage to say hi to everyone, too – shattered everyone’s hearts.
He has that many hit songs, it wasn’t possible to get through them all, so his DJ halfway through did a mash-up of songs he’s also written and featured in, including ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas, ‘Secret Love Song’ with Little Mix and ‘Replay’ by Iyaz.
We knew his voice was amazing – but can we have a moment for this man’s dance moves, keeping everyone on their feet at Co-op Live tonight, and his dancers made everyone want to start dance lessons tonight too, an absolutely incredible performance by all.
Jason Derulo told the audience, “This is a night to remember Manchester’, and that it absolutely was.
Ticket requests are now officially open for Harry Styles’ one-night-only Manchester gig
Emily Sergeant
The time has come – the ticket request system for Harry Styles’ one-night-only gig in Manchester is now live.
In case you hadn’t heard, it was announced on Wednesday evening after much speculation that Harry Styles would be making a return home to Manchester for a one-night-only ‘intimate’ gig at Co-op Live to celebrate the release of his fourth studio album next month.
Styles is set to share Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally with the world on Friday 6 March – and it’s that very same night he’ll be taking to the stage in Manchester.
Although little is known about what to expect at the gig, the poster for the event does state that there’ll be a ‘special performance of the album’, so it seems fair to say that Manchester will be the first to hear the new set of songs in full live.
And if all of that wasn’t exciting enough as it is, the tickets are only £20 per person.
But, of course, there is a bit of a catch, as this isn’t your regular online queuing up for tickets scenario, this is a ‘ticket request’ system instead.
So, like us – and literally every other fan in the vicinity of Greater Manchester and beyond this week – you’re probably wondering what a ‘ticket request’ system is… what does it look like? How does it work? Basically, what the heck is it? Well, we’ve done a bit of digging around to get to the bottom of it so you’re not left too much in the dark.
According to Ticketmaster’s website, if an artist is running a ticket request, they’ll invite fans to request tickets so you don’t have to compete in a first-come, first-served sale.
This means you can take your time to review the available options and request the right tickets for you.
All you need to do is tell Ticketmaster which shows you’re interested in, the type of ticket you want, and your payment details. Then, if the tickets you request can be fulfilled, your card will be charged and you’ll get emailed instructions to access them in the Ticketmaster App.
Unfortunately, as much as we’d love it to be the case for everyone, submitting a request doesn’t guarantee you tickets – it really is just luck of the draw.
To request tickets, you’ll need to follow these three simple steps:
Select which shows you’re interested in and the type of ticket you want
Add your payment details
Harry Styles ticket requests are now live / Credit: Johnny Dufort (Publicity Picture)
Ticketmaster will then send you a summary email that details the tickets you’ve requested. Your card won’t be charged at this time, but they may charge a temporary £1 authorisation to your card to validate your request.
A maximum of two tickets per person can be requested, which has been set to allow for as many fans as possible to get tickets.
Now, here’s the crucial part – you will need to submit your request for tickets while the window is open until Sunday 8 February at 11pm GMT. After the request window closes, you’ll get a second email by 11:59pm GMT on Tuesday 10 February confirming whether or not your request has been fulfilled.
Daisy Jackson -
24th January 2024 
