“Let’s open this venue properly shall we?”: After Peter Kay drama, fans in tears and a falling ventilation unit... Co-op Live is finally here - but was it worth it?

“Good evening Manchester,” bellowed Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, his fierce Northern roar echoing off the walls of Manchester’s shiny new arena.

“Let’s open this venue properly shall we?” Yes, let's.

It’s been a long time coming, but on Tuesday night, Co-op Live, the biggest arena in the UK, finally opened its doors.

After an embarrassing series of cancelled openings, rescheduled gigs, and a near ‘catastrophic’ incident with an air conditioning vent, a collective sigh of relief could be felt in the air - but there were also some pre-gig nerves.

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“Everyone who has been working on this building has been so nervous and so excited,” added Garvey, prompting a few raised eyebrows amongst gig-goers.

“There was already electricity in the air before you got in here and now it’s fully amped up - I hope you can feel it.”

That could have been a perceived as a gentle jibe from Garvey, alluding to the ‘technical issues’ that have delayed the landmark venue’s opening by three weeks and seen gigs such as Peter Kay’s rescheduled twice, others like Olivia Rodrigo’s postponed indefinitely, and Take That’s homecoming moved to the city’s other arena.

However, it was said with complete sincerity, the singer looking visibly moved by the crowd’s reaction and to be given the task of officially ‘housewarming’ the arena - even if it was by default.

Peter Kay was due to open the venue which has cost close to £450 million on April, 23 but a test event held days before and headlined by Rick Astley highlighted that it was far from finished.

Over the next two weeks, the venue would try two more times - once with American rockers The Black Keys and