Co-op Live — Attraction in Manchester

Been here numerous times for gigs and thought it was a great venue. I visited this year with a disabled family member and realised how shocking the accessibility is. For a new venue that prides itself on being fully accessible, it's really not. First a steward read our tickets and led us to an entrance, where we waited in the queue to get to the door, be searched and have our tickets scanned. Once we waited in the queue (about 15 minutes) we were scanned by security, who informed us that this was an entrance with stairs and no wheelchair access. No idea why the steward led us here, so we were led to the disabled entrance where we were told we would have to wait again in the queue outside, then be searched again, even though we had done this once after being led to the wrong place. The door into the venue on the disability entrance has a massive metal raised join on the floor. I had to lift the front of the chair over it and go with quite some speed to be able to move over it. Inside the venue- I will say the toilets and accessible toilets are always readily available, there are lots in the venue that are always clean too. When we came to enter the actual arena itself, there was a makeshift ramp for wheelchair users that was made of plastic and some sort of cardboard. The plastic itself must have been lifted up after continuous use and was now pointing upwards into a trip hazard, the join was the same colour as the floor so somebody could have easily tripped over it, or a chair would have got stuck. The steward showed us to our seat and took our chair and labelled it, they said they would store it until we needed it, and if we needed it during the interval or to use the toilet, to come and find a steward and they would get it for us. During the interval I asked a member of staff if they could fetch the chair for my family member and told them my name. This steward told me they don't "fetch the chairs for people" and that I needed to get it myself. I asked another member of staff who did not understand what I was asking, so instead I had to go and find where the wheelchairs were stored and fetch it myself. Because this took so long, we were late getting back into the performance as my family member takes longer to be able to use the bathroom. We returned to the arena where we were told we had to wait outside as they were recording, and could not enter until it had finished. This took about 5-10 minutes. As we were in the disabled access part, there were elderly people struggling to stand outside the entrance to get back in, people were upset and angry that they had nowhere to sit and could not go back in. A couple of elderly people with walking sticks actually started to sit on the steps outside, who were then told they needed to stand up as they were obstructing the walkway! Nobody could even move outside the door there were so many people waiting to get back in. Some of the people were very elderly and could barely even stand up, and only one member of staff came over and asked if everyone was okay and tried to get chairs for those he could. Overall the experience from a disabled point of view was very bad. The chairs are also so packed in that you can barely move, they have clearly just doubled up on chairs to sell more seats as opposed to actually making people feel comfortable. The sound in the venue is very grainy too, the further back you are sitting, the worse it gets. Otherwise it's actually a nice, clean arena. There is water and cups accessible at all times, there are bathrooms everywhere and you never struggle to find one. I would probably not recommend the venue as there are better ones that are closer...

I can't review the venue itself as I haven't attended a concert but this is more a warning for anyone having to pick someone up. The website provides details of a designated drop off/pick up on Edwin Street. And to be fair, getting there was easy with minimal traffic. However, as can be seen on the map, Edwin Street has two entrances/exits (marked 1 & 2). What they also don't tell you is Edwin Street is also the Drop off/Pick Up point for pre-booked taxis. So on arriving, following the Satnav I turned left at entrance 2, having come in from Rowley St. 1st mistake. As Taxis are predominantly coming in from Manchester, they all use entrance 1, which means I'm facing the wrong direction (Edwin street is quite narrow). No worries, managed to reverse and join the queue of taxis leaving entrance 2. We went in to Manchester for food and headed back to the pick up point in good time. Note - Edwin Street has a "max waiting" of 90 minutes. We arrived at 10:15 not knowing if the concert would finish at 10:30 or 11. As we can in from Manchester (and with prior knowledge) we followed the lead of the private hires and entered Edwin Street via entrance 1 and managed to get parked up. Within 10-15 mins Edwin Street was full with Cars/Taxis parked both sides of the road - this caused additional issues as parents turned up, entering via entrance 2 and with just a single track road because of parked cars, caused a tailback as they met oncoming cars from entrance 1. Concert finished and people started exiting, many with phones in hand trying to track down their private hire! Our 2 arrived and I managed to get out of my parking space and into the queue of traffic leaving before they got in the car (to try and save time)! The spent the next 25- 30 minutes trying to get out of Edwin Street. As it was full before the concert finished, Parents and Taxis were parked both sides of Phillips Park Road and with traffic coming from Rowley St and New Viaduct Street (another potential parking option) all going towards Manchester (i.e. past entrance 2 towards entrance 1) the road began gridlocked, especially with 95% of the private hire taxis all wanting to turn left at exit 2 and cars parked on both sides of the road on Edwin Street making it impossible to go by and turn right out of exit 2. Eventually I found a gap and made it to the junction, only to be blocked by inconsiderate drivers on Phillips Park Road not wanting to leave a gap to let the Taxis out who were turning left. Eventually we got out and after making it to New Viaduct St., the rest of the journey was simple with no traffic.

I think it's something the venue need to look out. There is nothing on the website to say this "designated drop off/Pick up" is also the designated place for pre-booked taxis. Why can't there be a similar designated pick up for parents? Pre-Booked and normal Taxis both have designated drop offs and pick ups, why not parents? Even so, just having one or two people in Hi-Viz jackets directing traffic and ensuring people enter and exit Edwin Street in the same direction (i.e. in 1 and out 2) would help, as well as making sure people park sensibly.

For the arena capacity, Edwin St. is very small and pre-booked taxis are parents all have to share the same small space. I appreciate they are wanting people to use public transport but not everyone can, unless you live in or near Manchester (we are the other side of the Pennines) and the roads leading off from Edwin Street are also very small making it difficult to get out if cars are parked both sides.

It just needs some thought and...

My friend and I visited Co-op Live arena on Thursday 13th March to see Sabrina Carpenter's Short N Sweet concert - we had travelled all the way from Cornwall and had been eagerly anticipating our first proper concert experience for several months.

We arrived to the venue early and headed straight to one of the outside merchandise stalls. Unfortunately, we must have caught one of the employees on a bad day as we were immediately met with the most abrupt, abrasive, rude attitude I have ever seen. He fat-shamed my friend, telling him they only had "normal" sizes left when he asked if they had any of a specific style left in a 2XL, and he rushed me into picking a size without informing me what sizes the t-shirt came in. Normally, I would have asked to try on a couple of sizes, however, this member of staff made me feel really stupid, like an inconvenience, like I wasting his time, but it is worth nothing that there was nobody in the queue behind us at this point! As someone who works in a clothing store, I understand the importance of great customer service, so this whole interaction honestly shocked me.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until we got home that we realised this employee had sold my friend an XL, and not the 2XL he had asked for, and I tried my t-shirt on and was disappointed to discover the medium I had bought was a bit snug - if I had felt less pressured and rushed by this member of staff, I would have taken my time and tried on a medium and a large before making my decision, but his rude and arrogant energy prevented this.

The second outdoor merchandise stand we went to was being run by a group of lovely girls who were super friendly, and we told them how we had been treated and coincidentally, they knew exactly which member of staff we were referring to, as they had witnessed him displaying this same behaviour on previous occasion!

My other issue was the overinflated price of drinks - over £9.00 for a can of premixed cocktail? You are having a laugh, right?! One of our other friends went to a concert at the O2 in London in October and she didn't even pay that much! We paid £285 each for our general admission tickets and did not realise how expensive drinks were going to be - it ended up being a very expensive night! I think the price of bottled water was outrageous, no wonder so many people in the pit were fainting. I understand bag checks and rules, but I do feel that you should be able to bring in a seated water bottle.

Be aware that the balcony seats are VERY unsafe - I thought the reviews were being overdramatic until I actually saw for myself. I'm not sure what the solution would be, because a railing would obstruct the view, but its really dangerous currently - especially when having to get up and shuffle past people.

We also attended the afterparty which was in the Backstage Club, and it was fun, but I feel would benefit from an outdoor area, because once you left the venue, you could not go back in...

Overall, I really enjoyed the concert, the venue was clean, and the staff were lovely (the rude man on the merch stand excluded!) and I would attend a concert here again, but I needed to share...