Manchester's new £325 million arena venue Co-op Live has been forced to cancel its first two shows, headlined by Peter Kay, because it needs more time to “satisfy the rigorous set of guidelines and protocols that are necessary for a venue of this size”. Basically, it ain't ready to open its doors.
Earlier today, CMU reported on how a test event this weekend headlined by Rick Astley had to be cut back at the last minute due to technical problems, resulting in thousands of tickets being cancelled. Power issues meant the venue could only accommodate about 4000 people.
With reports that staff were still busy finishing work on the corridors and cabling, meaning Manchester City Council had yet to sign off on the venue, we noted that audience members for Kay's shows would be very pissed off if this weekend's problems affected his performances.
Shortly after publishing that report, an announcement came in that Kay's shows have been cancelled. “Following our first test event on Saturday”, a statement read, “regretfully we have made the difficult decision to reschedule our two opening performances by Peter Kay. These dates will move from 23 Apr and 24 Wed to Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 Apr”.
Venue management explained, “It is critical to ensure we have a consistent total power supply to our fully electric sustainable venue, the completion of which is a few days behind. Rescheduling gives us the extra time we need to continue testing thoroughly. This is vital to satisfy the rigorous set of guidelines and protocols that are necessary for a venue of this size”.
The venue’s statement was accompanied by a message from Kay, which read, “I’m truly gutted as I know how disappointing this will be for everyone with tickets, but obviously it’s a brand new venue and it’s important that everything is finished and safe for full capacity audiences. Fortunately, we’ve been able to reschedule the shows to next week - I’ll have to miss my Bums & Tums class, but hopefully I’ll see you then”.
A show by The Black Keys due to take place this weekend will go ahead as planned, though that only has a capacity of about 10,000, whereas the full venue - once operational - will fit in 23,500.
Saturday's difficulties, and the cancellation of Kay’s shows, somewhat embarrassingly followed comments made by the new arena's GM Gary Roden to the effect that some grassroots venues are struggling because they are “poorly run”.
He made that comment in an interview with the BBC when asked why Co-op Live isn’t supporting the proposal that arena venues should add a £1 levy on tickets to support grassroots venues which, unlike the arenas, are currently in crisis amid surging production costs and the cost of living crisis.