Inside what went wrong before Co-op Live's test event - and the frantic race to finish the venue

Co-op Live faces a frantic 48 hours before doors open for the venue's first public event. Peter Kay is due to perform at the 23,500-capacity arena on Tuesday night (April 23).

But two days before its showpiece opening, work is not complete on the Eastlands venue. The council's building control is also yet to sign the building off - although the venue can still open without a completion certificate, with 'mitigations' in place.

It comes as problems with power at the site, which are believed to have affected the fire safety and emergency services communication systems, led to bosses slashing attendance from around 11,000 to 4,000 at yesterday's test event - less than two hours before it was due to start. Insiders claim 'everything was run down to the wire' ahead of Saturday's test show

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Now, teams on-site are 'throwing everything at it' to prepare for the venue's grand opening. A Co-op Live spokesman said: “Opening a venue of this size requires working very closely with multiple stakeholders and responsible authorities to deliver against a rigorous set of guidelines and protocols.

"Leading into our test event, some systems had limited electrical power which we were only able to mitigate by reducing capacity. This meant we made the difficult decision to reduce the capacity of our test event and deeply regret the impact this had on our invited guests.

"We do recognise that many people were inconvenienced yesterday evening at very short notice and apologise to all affected. We're working hard to complete Co-op Live and look forward to welcoming fans and artists to the venue soon.”

Manchester City Council's building control