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There are big changes at Parklife 2025 – including a seriously swish new VIP area

Here's what else is new

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson - 13th June 2025

Parklife 2025 is upon us, and we’ve been down to the festival site for a little look around at what’s new for this year.

The beloved Manchester festival will be filling the fields of Heaton Park with live music and an unbeatable party atmosphere on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 June.

This year’s headliners include Charli XCX, 50 Cent, Confidence Man, Jorja Smith, Peggy Gou, and Bicep, as well as plenty of space on the line-up for local talents like Antony Szmierek and Interplanetary Criminal.

BUT the eagle-eyed among you will have already noticed from the Parklife map that there are a few changes afoot this year, including new stages, a new lay-out, and a very swanky new VIP area.

Firstly, there are two new stages to check out, one of which we think will get pretty popular when it rains…

Big Top is a new covered tent with a cracking line-up over the weekend, including Skream & Benga, Joy Orbison, and Armand Van Helden.

Also new on the stage front is Matinee, flanked on either side by black shipping containers and ready to host Chris Stussy, Alex Farell, and Manchester’s very own Interplanetary Criminal.

Matinee is a new Parklife stage
Matinee is a new Parklife stage
The Hangar is back
The Hangar is back
The Valley has become the only main stage
The Valley has become the only main stage
The big wheel is gone but new fairground rides have appeared
The big wheel is gone but new fairground rides have appeared

A major loss for 2025 is the big wheel, which has always given the very best views of the Parklife site.

But worry not, adrenaline junkies – it’s been replaced with a new sky-high swing ride, so you can dangle above the festival crowds, along with several other fairground rides.

Also missing from Parklife 2025 is the Parklife Stage, which has always acted as a secondary main stage hosting more pop and mainstream artists.

This year, all the headliners will be performing over at The Valley, with the Parklife Stage sent into retirement (at least for this year).

That means less stages but still plenty of live music and huge acts to enjoy over the weekend.

The new 'Backstage' VIP bar area at Parklife 2025
The new ‘Backstage’ VIP bar area at Parklife 2025
The new 'Backstage' VIP viewing area at Parklife 2025
The new ‘Backstage’ VIP viewing area at Parklife 2025
A VERY swanky new VIP area

There’s a new layout now too, with only The Valley and the G Stage staying in the same spots as last year.

Magic Sky, normally tucked into a corner of the festival site, has moved into the heart of the action.

Meanwhile The Hangar dominates the west side of Parklife, with the two new stages – Big Top and Matinee – nearby.

VIP is totally new this year too, and better than ever.

The Parklife VIP area has jumped across to the other side of the festival site this year and is now right in the heart of the action near the Valley Stage.

From here, you have an exclusive viewing area of the stage, plus exclusive food and drink, priority entry, VIP toilets, a hair and makeup pamper station, and plenty more.

Then there’s a new Backstage ticket type this year, which gets you on-stage access to the Hangar stage, an exclusive viewing area of the Valley Stage, a backstage bar and a chill out area – it’s £165.00 each to upgrade for the weekend.

If you’ve already bought a ticket but want to upgrade yourself to VIP, it’s not too late (and speaking from experience, WORTH IT).

You can upgrade your whole weekend to VIP for £72.80 each, or £44.80 each for day tickets.

Find out more about Parklife 2025 HERE.

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Featured image: The Manc Group

Audio

US rising star Reneé Rapp announces huge Manchester arena gig as part of European tour

Emily Sergeant Emily Sergeant

Reneé Rapp has just announced a European leg to her upcoming tour, and she’ll be stopping off in Manchester for a huge arena gig.

In just a few short years, Reneé Rapp has become a star… and her star is only rising higher.

At just 25-years-old, the critically-acclaimed musical theatre and TV actress has pivoted to become an undeniable pop sensation and film star – and an iconic figure in interviews too… which isn’t a job, but it should be – after landing her breakout role as Regina George in the Mean Girls musical on Broadway back in 2019.

Even though she chose to reprise her role as Regina George in the 2024 movie adaptation of the Mean Girls musical, since 2022, Rapp has largely turned her attention to her solo music career.

Reneé Rapp will be performing at Manchester’s AO Arena next March / Credit: Supplied

2022 saw Rapp release her debut EP, Everything to Everyone, before she then went on the channel her raw talent and authentic voice even further, and release her first full-length studio album Snow Angel in 2023.

Both 2024 and 2025 have been big musical years for Rapp too – so much so that she has now amassed more than 1.4 billion streams and counting across her entire discography. 

An already-successful 2025 is about to become even more successful, as Rapp’s second album, Bite Me, is expected to be released on 1 August, and she’s also heading out on a highly anticipated US tour from late September through to late October.

Following on from her US tour, Rapp has today announced that she’ll be heading across the pond to Europe in the new year, and will be making her way over to Manchester to take to the iconic AO Arena stage in March 2026.

Amsterdam, Berlin, and Paris are just some of the other cities Rapp will be visiting before Manchester, ahead of closing out the tour at London’s Wembley Arena.

Reneé Rapp will be playing a huge gig at the AO Arena in Manchester on Wednesday 18 March 2026 as part of the ‘Bite Me Tour’, and tickets officially go on sale next week – with both pre-sales and general sale available.

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The Three+ presale will begin on Wednesday 30 July at 10am, and the AO Arena presale will start on Thursday 31 July, again at 10am, before general sale launches on Friday 1 August at 10am.

Get your tickets when they go on sale here.

Featured Image – Publicity Picture (Supplied)

Audio

Oasis are clearly doing something very deliberate for the as-yet-unconfirmed Live ’25 reunion album

Danny Jones Danny Jones Oasis Live '25 reunion world tour album

We’ve still not emotionally recovered from Oasis’ five homecoming nights in Manchester, and after seeing that the band just released a live recording of ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ from Heaton Park, it’s taken us right back to Friday, 11 July, and we can’t stop thinking about a Live ’25 album.

In fact, while the live record of the reunion world hasn’t been confirmed just yet, we’re becoming increasingly convinced that this is exactly what fans are going to get – and following the second Live ’25 concert capture dropping this week, we’re almost certain we know what they’re doing.

And if so, you can consider the vinyl of the ‘Oasis Live ’25‘ LP already in the basket.

Many of you might have already thought the same thing, but for anyone it hasn’t yet clicked for, let us explain; we got the live taping of ‘Slide Away’ from the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to start with, i.e. the first stop on the world tour. Here’s a snippet of how it sounds:

Have we listened to it pretty much non-stop ever since? Yes, but concentrate, that’s not the point we’re getting at; we think Oasis are doing something very specific for their almost inevitable Live ’25 album.

Up next was the aforementioned ‘Cigs and Alcohol’, performed and recorded on home turf right here in 0161, and released in honour of their magnificent Manc comeback.

More accurately, the live version of the song is plucked from their unforgettable opening evening at Heaton Park, as opposed to any of the other five dates.

Can you see where we’re going with this yet?…

With their place of birth having waited more than a decade and a half to hear the first few iconic chords that signal the start of the timeless Oasis classic and a pure rock and roll blowout, you can literally hear the energy from the crowd in your ears.

If you haven’t heard it dozens of times already, take a listen for yourselves and feel free to Poznań wherever you happen to be reading this:

Upon checking the date of the Cardiff recording of ‘Slide Away’ was taken from, we noticed that they had also chosen the inaugural night of the entire Live ’25 tour, i.e. their very first live show in 16 years.

While we’re aware an official Oasis reunion tour album is technically still TBC, if you see a third live track released after the first of their SEVEN shows in the capital get underway this Friday (25 July), you can pretty much bank on the special live release being all but nailed on.

So, not only are we getting an Oasis Live ’25 reunion documentary from the man behind Peaky Blinders, but it looks like they’ll be providing fans with a virtual tour and a chance to experience/relive the gigs aurally, with each of the 23 tracks on the setlist being pulled from a different city on the world tour.

Now, while this isn’t an entirely unheard of idea in the world of live albums, that’s not all.

Better still, if our suspicions are correct and the next drop is taken from night one of Oasis Live ’25 in London (bonus points if you can guess which tune they go for), then the entire thing will capture the sonics and atmosphere at its best: propped up by the utter euphoria of a dream finally being realised.

We’re sure they could pull the audio at any part of the set, from any old date, and it would sound great, but nothing is like the palpable ecstasy you could quite literally hear on the opening nights in Cardiff, Manchester and, no doubt, Wembley. Having said that, the final farewell was pretty biblical too.

Oasis 25: Heaton Park send off Oasis like only Manchester could – with biblical rain
Put simply, isolate any night of the world tour and there’ll be something unique in the master.

Die-hards have been waiting what feels like a lifetime to finally see their favourite band in the flesh again; actually, like many of us here in Greater Manchester and indeed all over the world, some were simply too young to experience the Britpop craze and ‘Oasis Mania’ the first time around.

They obviously have a huge following not just in the UK and Ireland, but all over: the US, Japan, across South East Asia and throughout most of South America – you only have to watch clips or even hear Noel Gallagher talk about Buenos Aires to not how ‘mad fer it’ they are over there.

For a lot of fans, this IS their 1990s moment, and even those who sadly didn’t manage to get tickets have a chance to almost feel like they were there.

One thing’s for sure: if/when the Oasis Live ’25 album arrives, that Manchester buzz will take some beating in the unofficial contest to see who loves the legendary British rock band the most.

@the.manc For one last time – Oasis in the city where it all began- Manchester forever 🤘 #themanc #manchester #oasis #oasislive25 #mcr #oasismania ♬ original sound – The Manc

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Featured Images – Oasis (via YouTube)/Audio North

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