Coldplay will finally touch down in Manchester this month for their long-awaited Music of the Spheres World Tour.
The group, fronted by Chris Martin, will be performing a whopping four nights at the 60,000-capacity Etihad Stadium, home ground of Manchester City.
It’s the first time they’ve brought this tour to the city, choosing London and Glasgow on last year’s run of shows.
Coldplay are one of the most successful and popular bands of the last three decades, with nine albums and endless sold-out concerts in their back catalogue.
They’re also famed for putting on a staggering live show.
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This 2023 tour promises to be as environmentally beneficial as possible. They’ve even added a kinetic dance floor that harvests energy from the audience’s dancing, and installed electricity-generating pedal bikes so that the crowd can recharge the band’s battery by having a little cycle.
If you’re heading to see Coldplay at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, here’s everything you need to know.
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When are Coldplay performing in Manchester?
Coldplay at Wembley. Credit: Robert Mallows
Coldplay will be taking over the Etihad Stadium for FOUR nights – quite a feat.
They’ll be performing on Wednesday 31 May, Thursday 1 June, Saturday 3 June and Sunday 4 June.
So as you might expect, tickets are extremely hard to come by at this point.
At the time of writing, there was one single, lonely seat left in the entire venue for the band’s opening show – and absolutely nothing for subsequent dates.
According to the Man City site, these are the stage times for Colplay and their support acts.
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Campus opening time – 2pm
Doors open – 5pm
Porij – 6pm-6.30pm
Chvrches – 7pm-7.45pm
Coldplay – 8.15pm-10.15pm
What’s the expected setlist?
Coldplay. Credit: Stevie Rae Gibbs
Setlists will always be subject to change as artists hone their live show, but this is what Coldplay played on their most recent gig in Barcelona.
Higher Power Adventure of a Lifetime Paradise The Scientist Viva la Vida Something Just Like This (The Chainsmokers & Coldplay cover) Magic What’s Love Got to Do With It (Graham Lyle cover) (with Lauren Mayberry) Charlie Brown Yellow Human Heart People of the Pride Clocks Infinity Sign Hymn for the Weekend Aeterna My Universe (Coldplay x BTS cover) A Sky Full of Stars Sunrise Bamboléo (Gipsy Kings cover) (with Gipsy Kings) Nel blu, dipinto di blu (Domenico Modugno cover) (with Gipsy Kings) Humankind Fix You Biutyful
How to get to the Etihad Stadium
A map of Etihad Campus.
Public-transport wise, the Metrolink is the most direct way to get to the Etihad Stadium (and its dedicated tram stop Etihad Campus), which is just a few stops away from Manchester Piccadilly.
Both Holt Town and Velopark Metrolink stops, located on either side of the Etihad Campus stop, will not be open for at least an hour after an event at the stadium.
The trams will be very busy though, and the weather looks good, so you might prefer to walk – it’s around a 30 minute stroll from town with this safe walking route recommended.
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If you need to drive, official car parking is priced at £25 for cars, £50 for coaches, and £40 for mini buses.
There are unofficial car parks near the stadium too but make sure you’re not getting ripped off.
Weather forecast in Manchester for Coldplay
Oh guys, you’re in luck – for once in its life Manchester has a stunning weather forecast for the entire run of Coldplay shows.
It’s set to be sunny with highs of 19 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, then there’s more sunshine with a high of 20 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. Glorious.
Featured image: Publicity picture
Feature
Hardcastle Crags – the prettiest autumn walk in the North West with a great restaurant at the end
Daisy Jackson
This is the time of year where it’s particularly difficult to drag yourself off the sofa and into the great outdoors.
The weather isn’t quite crisp enough to feel festive and most of us (even the pumpkin spice latte, cardigan-clad crew) are missing the more reliable warmth of the summer months.
But autumn is here, like it or not, and it definitely has its perks.
One of which is the undeniable beauty the season brings.
It’s not just the blazing red, orange, yellow and brown leaves that suddenly take over the green spaces around the UK.
It’s also in the sunsets and sunrises that become so much easier to catch while the days are shorter (you have to admit, the commutes are prettier when they coincide with sunrise).
The riverside walk at Hardcastle Crags. Credit: Unsplash
And there aren’t many places better to soak in all the autumn beauty than Hardcastle Crags, just across the border in West Yorkshire.
The National Trust site sits between Leeds and Manchester and is a popular day trip destination for Mancs, given the trains that run regularly to Hebden Bridge.
A walking route around Hardcastle Crags at this time of year will take you through a landscape of blazing orange trees, babbling streams, and dappled sunlight.
When you catch a golden autumnal day the leaves will crunch underfoot, but even on a soggy day the leaf mulch has its own special kind of beauty here.
There are two walking routes between the main car park and Gibson Mill, a former 19th century cotton mill which is now home to a lovely cafe.
One will take you down to the river, where wooden boardwalks weave right along the water’s edge.
There are even stepping stones you can use to scamper across the river – a great Instagram pic, or just a way to keep the kids entertained for a few minutes.
A walk around Hardcastle Crags in Autumn. Credit: The Manc Group
The other route goes up through the upper woodland, where pine trees loom and you get a great view of the valley below.
For an easy loop, you can do both – a stroll through the trees, a stop for coffee and cake, then return along the river (or vice versa).
But with 15 miles of footpaths, you can explore way beyond that.
The National Trust’s list of walks includes everything from a wheelchair and pram-accessible estate track to peaceful woodland loops, to rocky scrambles and former railway lines.
And when you’re done with Hardcastle Crags itself, there’s a world-class restaurant in the gorgeous town centre itself.
Coin sits in the shell of the former Lloyd’s bank, with exposed brick and massive period windows, and specialises in natural wine and small plates.
When The Manc Eats visited, we found plates of freshly-cut meat and cheese served alongside ice-cold batched classic cocktails, where ‘quality is key, and it shines through on the plate’.
Our reviewer said: “With its higgledy-piggledy stone mill houses, surrounding woodland, hidden waterfalls and treasure-trove charity shops, Hebden Bridge is a popular attraction all of its own for those wanting to venture beyond the city. Coin is simply the cherry on top.”
In celebration of Momo Shop: a Chorlton favourite that has flourished since its rebrand
Danny Jones
It’s not often we go out of our way to hammer home just how staggering we found a restaurant, but after now losing track of the number of times that a member of our team has eaten at Momo Shop in Chorlton and come back near speechless, it deserves more than a review.
We regularly hold ourselves back and resist the urge to talk in superlatives wherever possible, especially because we worry we might be falling into the recency bias trap, but in this instance, we’re going to go out on a limb and fall on our hospitality sword. Well, this particular writer is…
It’s official: Momo Shop Nepali Street Food – for our money, anyway – is up there with one of THE best restaurants in Manchester right now.
And there are plenty of reasons why, not least of all because of the years of practice they have feeding increasingly discerning Manc diners under a different moniker.
Simple but charming – all the focus is on the foodAnd the food speaks for itselfSome of the most flavourful fillings you’ll find in ManchesterBusy any given night of the weekNo review (Credit: The Manc Eats/Momo Shop via Instagram)
If you don’t live in/frequent Chorlton, you’ll be forgiven for thinking that this gaff was a somewhat new addition to Chorlton, but in actual fact it’s been gradually growing a loyal and passionate following for more than seven years.
This is because before the miniamlist rebrand that saw the walls stripped back, the exterior painted blue and cutesy little bits of artwork hung amidst that familiar and atmospheric festoon lighting, Momo Shop was once The Little Yeti.
Its former iteration boasted hundreds of glowing reviews in its own right, which already plated up plenty of stunning Nepalese food, but since switching primarily towards serving a menu primarily made up of momos (Tibetan-style fried dumplings hand-folded into various shapes) they’ve well and truly shone.
Now approaching a full 12 months under the new name, the Nepali street food spot isn’t just one of a relatviely small handful considering how much great South Asian food there is across Greater Manchester, we’d wager it could be the very best representing that Alpine-Himalayan belt in our region.
Our latest visit was genuinely just as good as our first, second, third and so on – take your pick.
From the simply incredible deep fried pork dumplings and the deeply moorish butter sauce that goes with literally any momo filling, to the super traditional buffalo ones that are not only authentic but, come on, where else can you find such a unique meat in these parts? It’s some of the best food we’ve eaten.
And we don’t just mean of late; Momo Shop might genuinely among of the nicest scran we’ve had in ages and it’s no exagerration to say that the first taste we enjoyed from many of these flavours have formed some of the strongest culinary memories we’ve created in quite a while.
It’s also worth nothing that it isn’t just one main snack-sized dish. The chow mein, keema noodles and cheesy chops are showstoppers themselves, and we’ve already booked in again for a 30th birthday celebration purely so we can try those lambs ribs and their take on a shashlick.
Nevertheless, we love the idea of the numerous configurations and concotions by pairing different dumplings and owner Niti Karki gave us some pro-tips of the best duos and even let us in on the trade secret of her go-to combo when she’s hungover. Legend.
Once again, at the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, odd moments have felt like core foodie memories on a par with our favourite all-time meals.
Personally, I’m glad to report that this isn’t just a review: consider this a declaration that Momo Shop has quickly become my favourite restaurant not just in Chorlton but in all of central Manchester, something I haven’t had since the heartbreaking closure of Cocktail Beer Ramen + Bun in 2023.
Plenty of varietyDamn straightNiti = absolute iconWe’ll keep your condiment secret forever, Niti…
There might be an element of the almost HakkaPo-esque style drawings, the colour palette and the carefully curated pop-punk, old school emo and post-hardcore playlist that’s over half a decade in the making that makes particualrly partial to this place
But before we wrap up this glorified love letter parading as a ‘review’, we also want to give a special nod to the charming staff and Niti’s mum, specficially, who was too modest to even let us share her picture, but whose wealth of wisdom, influence and experience has clearly inspired Momo Shop’s success.
Don’t be shy, Sue – the only thing more stylish than the food was you, girl. Pop off.
Put simply, we’ll be going back here as regularly as possible until we try every different momo + sauce variation there is, and there’s nothing you can do to stop us.
If you are in the mood for more dumpling excellence, by the way, you might want to check out the unassuming Northern Quarter gem that is Chef Diao.
Daisy Jackson -
30th May 2023 
