Courteeners have announced a huge outdoor show at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Park in 2026. Find full details below.
The band will perform at the venue alongside a host of special guests, including The Vaccines, who will play their 2011 debut album ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’ in full, The Coral, Getdown Services and Girl In The Year Above on Saturday, August 29.
Tickets for the show go on sale at 10am on Friday, October 24 and can be purchased here. Every ticket sold will also see £1 going directly to the Music Venue Trust to support new artists on tour, and invest in the future of live music.
The band previously performed a huge show at Manchester’s Heaton Park in the summer of 2023.
That show saw the band perform their debut 2008 album ‘St. Jude’ in full as part of its 15th anniversary celebrations to a 50,000 strong crowd.
Speaking to NME about that show at the time frontman Liam Fray said: “That was really, really special, I’ll tell you next week how it was because it won’t sink in for a while.”
“I don’t know whether it’s because we’re getting older but we’re enjoying these moments more,” he continued. “You’re aware of the mad potential when you put the show on sale, I have to look at that tonight and it has to last me.”
Courteeners’ last album ‘Pink Cactus Café’ was released last year and received a four star review from NME.
“These aren’t songs by parka monkeys drinking Dark Fruits in the landfill of indie; they add up to a colourful sky that stretches way beyond Manchester. There’s confidence, and then there’s this,” it read.
Speaking about the album to NME, Fray previously said: “It’s got a bit of HAIM in there, the shuffle and the middle eight. But then it’s still very Manchester: ‘Take me out for a knockabout / Against the wall of the time hole‘. If a Mancunian joined HAIM, what would it sound like? Maybe that’s it! That chorus is so euphoric.
“That’s one song where it feels like, ‘If Courteeners can do that, the shackles are off.’ It really opens up another world. It was important to get it on early, and put a marker down.”
Elsewhere, Fray helped to launch a new Abbey Road-designed studio for up-and-coming grassroots musicians in Manchester earlier this year.
“Opening up a space like this to get people through the door – I’m all for it,” he said of the space. “There are obstacles to get into the industry, finance is one of those barriers, but geography is also one. To have something of this level up here that is a focal point in Manchester opens up the industry and takes it to a wider audience. There will be geniuses out there that we don’t yet know about.”
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