Plans for a massive music-filled takeover of Manchester have been announced ahead of 1.3 million tourists descending on the city centre this summer.
It comes as no surprise that this summer is set to be a big one for music in Manchester.
Parklife weekend has just been and gone, but in 2025, the fun is far from over, as there will be countless global megastars taking to the stage at some of our city’s biggest music venues, such as Co-op Live and the AO Arena, over the next couple of months, and there’s also the Sounds of the City concert series to look forward to at Castlefield Bowl, as well as a handful of Wythenshawe Park gigs.
Oh, and in case you’ve been living under a rock, there’s also the small matter of Manchester’s most legendary band, Oasis, reforming for a run of gigs at Heaton Park next month too.
Sure, Manchester is big for music all year round, but as you can imagine, 2025 is set to be bigger than ever, which is why Manchester City Council has now announced its very-own musical takeover called MCR Live ’25 to help celebrate what promises to be a sensational summer of sound.
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On the setlist: 🎸 A star-studded guitar trail, courtesy of Wild In Art 🛍️ Pop-up markets to explore 🎡 A festival bar to soak up the summer vibes 🥳 And much, much more!
— Manchester City Council (@ManCityCouncil) June 12, 2025
There’ll be everything from a pop-up bar in Piccadilly Gardens with surprise live acts doing sets, and markets in St Peter’s Square selling vinyl and vintage goods, to block parties in the Northern Quarter, and the already-announced Music for the Senses art trail dotted around all the well-known city centre sights.
The Piccadilly Gardens space, known as The Hub, is designed to be the ‘basecamp’ for Manchester’s music tourists, and will be an easy place to drink at the bar, sample some of the best street food in the North West, catch surprise acts and DJ takeovers on the outdoor stage, or bring the family along during the day for some music-inspired fun.
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If you head to St Peter’s Square, this is where you’ll find the pop-up markets running alongside Oasis’ legendary homecoming gigs, which will bring together local makers, artists, and indie traders for a celebration of sound, style, and city pride.
A massive music-filled takeover is planned as 1.3m tourists descend on Manchester this summer / Credit: David Oates Photography
Several ‘block parties’ will be taking over the Northern Quarter on selected Fridays and Saturdays in both June and July, so it’s your chance to head on down to Edge Street and Thomas Street and take in all the action happening over two stages – with DJs and live acts playing throughout the day.
There’ll also even be an ‘Oasis Week’ at Manchester Central Library, with legendary Supernova live sets, Gallagher look-alike competitions, a Big Oasis Quiz, Supersonic film screenings, and so much more.
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But the stand-out event has to be the art trail, which is titled Music for the Senses: an art arrangement for a musical city, running across the city centre from early July until the end of August, and is a collaboration between global art producer Wild in Art – the creators of the famous Bee in the City project – and the Council.
There’ll be pop-up bars, music markets, block parties, and loads more dotted around the city / Credit: MCC
At the heart of the exhibition will be an interactive installation called ‘Guitar Street’ created by Manchester artist Liam Hopkins, known as Lazerian, which will lovingly repurpose 100+ broken guitars, all donated by members of the public.
“We’re already known the world over for the music we make and for our unrivalled music scene, and this summer we’re going all out with MCR Live ’25 to harness the moment and celebrate the massive contribution that music makes to the city,” commented Cllr Bev Craig, who is the leader of Manchester City Council.
You can find out everything happening for MCR Live ’25 on the VisitManchester website here.
Of course, the annual Manchester Day celebrations will also be back and taking over the city centre’s main streets on Saturday 26 July too, and this year, that’s also music-themed… because why wouldn’t it be? It makes sense.
Clubland Live is returning to Manchester with an arena show that will be ‘the biggest night of your life’
Daisy Jackson
Clubland will be back with a live arena show in Manchester next year, following massive success and feel-good parties for the last few years.
There’ll be five cities on the newly announced tour, which will fill arenas with classic dance tunes and the full Clubland experience.
As well as Manchester, the tour will visit Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle and Aberdeen in May next year.
The three-hour action-packed show will bring together some big names from as far back as the 90s in the dance music world, along with some of the biggest new names on the scene.
Each city will have a slightly different line-up, but for Manchester it includes Cascada, Ultrabeat, and Ben Nicky.
The new Clubland show at the AO Arena will be reliving the times where dance music produced the best tunes, energy and feel-good factor from throughout the generations.
Clubland started life as a series of compilation albums in 2002, and become the umbrella brand for an entire movement of commercial dance music, spawning countless classic hits over the years.
That’s included artists like Cascada, Scooter, BassHunter and Ultrabeat amongst many, many more – selling 30 million albums.
And Clubland TV remains one of the most popular music channels on UK music TV, bringing a mix of the both the classics and new tunes to thousands of people every day.
Clubland Live launched in 2008 and played to tens of thousands of people across the UK, in a landmark moment for the dance music industry.
And now it’s back again for a live show at the AO Arena.
Clubland Live will be at the AO Arena in Manchester on Saturday 2 May 2026, with tickets on sale from 10am on Friday 7 November HERE.
Outbreak Festival announces hard-hitting lineup for 15th anniversary in Manchester
Danny Jones
Outbreak Fest is celebrating 15 years in 2026, and they’re toasting the milestone with a hefty lineup full of trash, metal, punk, hardcore and more.
The cult favourite alternative and annual music festival that takes place at the Bowlers Exhibition Centre, a.k.a. BEC Arena, every year has only gotten bigger over the past few years, and their landmark 15th anniversary is set to be another rager.
Approaching a decade and a half of delighting alt-kids and Manc rocks next summer, the Outbreak lineup down in London was always going to be impressive, but we just weren’t quite expecting so many big hitters in just the first wave alone up here.
Here’s the Outbreak Fest Manchester lineup for 2026 so far:
Promising plenty more to come and soon, the festival organisers have already confirmed that there will be a standalone Friday show to kick off the carnage come June 2026.
As explained in the social media post, which has been met with an incredible reaction from fans, “you will be able to upgrade your weekend ticket to include this show once the line-up is announced, if you would like.” Bang for your buck.
They went on to write: “This festival is nothing without the community of people around it. It doesn’t exist without your support, and we are grateful to still be doing this all these years later.”
This devil-horned, weekend-long celebration has always given off a great style and aesthetic, too; we particularly enjoyed their cinematic preview released on Halloween.
Put together by Charles Fitzgerald, a digital content creator who has worked with the likes of Bring Me The Horizon and their frontman Oli Sykes’ Drop Dead clothing range, these are the kinds of teasers we want to see more of…
With names like the resurgent Alexisonfire (set to play their seminal third album Crisis in its entirety), Ipswich rockers Basement, as well as post-hardcore heroes, Touché Amoré, topping the bill, we cannot wait to see what comes next.
Safe to say you should keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more announcements and information on Outbreak 2026.
Following up to the reaction online, they added: “Two-day passes on sale now. That was a crazy reaction to the first announcement and we are grateful.
“Truthfully, we were 60% sold before we announced yesterday! This is us giving you a heads up. If you can, and you f*** with this lineup – get your ticket soon! Thank you.”
General admission went live on their official website on Monday morning, and you really don’t want to wait around with this one; grab your tickets HERE.
Emily Sergeant -
16th June 2025 
