Oasis reunion ‘could bring £15m to Manchester’

The return of Oasis could give Manchester’s economy a £15m boost, the region’s nightlife champion has said.

About 80,000 people are expected at each of the band’s four live shows at Heaton Park next July, which were announced alongside the news the band were re-forming after a 15 year split.

Sacha Lord, who founded Parklife festival and is night-time economy adviser to the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said the gigs will be “phenomenal” for the hospitality sector.

Tickets, which go on sale on Saturday, are “going to sell out in seconds” and bring a “real boost that we desperately need”, he said.

Oasis are to return to Heaton Park, the last placed they played in the city before their break up in 2009, to perform again on 11,12, 19, and 20 July 2025.

Mr Lord said he and his teams have applied a formula to the Oasis shows that they use to assess what Parklife brings to the local economy

“It’s easily going to be north of £15m in terms hotels rooms, taxis, bars, pubs”, he said.

“I was born in whole ‘Madchester’ period, I know how much music means in this city, and the fact that the whole of the world is again now looking at a band from Manchester, from Burnage, it’s what we’re about.”

The announcement of Oasis’s return in 2025 comes in what Mr Lord described as a “buoyant” year for Manchester in which the biggest indoor arena in the UK, Co-Op Live opened in the city.

Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, who represents Burnage, where the Gallagher brothers grew up, said the homecoming gig would be “fantastic” for the city.

The council-run Heaton Park venue will be run by staff “well-drilled” at hosting major events, she said.

“I think the whole city will be excited next summer, and I think we’ll no doubt see lots of events and activities that will sit alongside this and really, I think, celebrate it for the moment that it is.”

She said many would be travelling from outside the city for the gigs, so Manchester would “put on a good party right across the city for people to enjoy”.