Co-op Live is the UK's largest entertainment arena, situated in Manchester, England. The venue hosts a diverse range of events, including concerts, sports, and live performances, catering to a wide audience of entertainment enthusiasts. With a focus on providing exceptional experiences, Co-op Live offers premium ticket options and unique pre-show experiences through the Co-op Backstage Club, enhancing the overall enjoyment for attendees. The arena serves as a key destination for both local and visiting fans, featuring performances from renowned artists and popular tours. By accommodating various events, Co-op Live attracts a broad demographic, including families, music lovers, and sports fans, ensuring a vibrant atmosphere for all guests.
Co-op Live receives a mixed reception from attendees, with many expressing dissatisfaction. While some customers appreciate the venue's atmosphere and the quality of performances, such as Billie Eilish and Drake, the overall experience is marred by significant issues.
Reviewers frequently mention poor organization, with long queues and confusion about entry points leading to frustration. Complaints about seating arrangements highlight safety concerns, particularly in upper levels, where tight spaces make access difficult. Additionally, many express disappointment with the acoustics, describing them as horrendous. Despite some positive remarks about staff attitude and service in specific areas like the OVO Lounge, the overwhelming sentiment reflects dissatisfaction with the venue's management and operational efficiency.
Summary generated with AI from recent reviews
Each source counts by its number of reviews. Only reviews written by people are scored.
| Source | Rating | Reviews | Weight | 6-mo | Fake risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Trustpilot Imported Trustpilot reviews | 2.1 | 124 | 100% | -0.3 | ● Low |
Monthly average rating from reviews written by people · latest review Aug 2025.
| Month | Average | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 24 | 2.1 | 12 |
| Jan 25 | 2.5 | 2 |
| Feb 25 | 2.6 | 5 |
| Mar 25 | 1.6 | 7 |
| Apr 25 | 2.0 | 22 |
| May 25 | 3.1 | 13 |
| Jun 25 | 1.9 | 30 |
| Jul 25 | 2.1 | 30 |
| Aug 25 | 1.0 | 3 |
Share of positive (4–5★) and negative (1–2★) reviews mentioning each topic · based on the 124 most recent reviews.
“The staff were outstanding throughout: friendly, attentive, and genuinely went out of their way to make the night spe...”
“We were so excited for this concert – it was the first one my niece had ever been to, and she’s a huge Billie fan”
Same method for every company: overall rating, legitimacy checks, the average rating of reviews mentioning each area and the 6-month trend · Tickets & Venues.
| Company | Overall | Legit | Service | Value | Website & app | Trend | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 2.1 out of 5 (poor) | 100 out of 100 | 2.6 out of 5 (poor) | 1.8 out of 5 (poor) | 1.6 out of 5 (poor) | −7% | 124 |
| 2.6 out of 5 (poor) | 100 out of 100 | 1.9 out of 5 (poor) | — | 1.4 out of 5 (poor) | +9% | 424 | |
| 4.5 out of 5 (good) | 50 out of 100 | — | — | — | — | 20,156 | |
| 4.5 out of 5 (good) | 67 out of 100 | — | — | — | — | 5,849 | |
| 1.2 out of 5 (poor) | 100 out of 100 | 1.0 out of 5 (poor) | 1.0 out of 5 (poor) | 1.1 out of 5 (poor) | — | 1,002 |
Bottom line: Co-op Live is #4 of 5 on overall rating in this group.
124 reviews of Co-op Live . Filter by what matters to you.
Dreadful experience at Stevie Wonder concert on 5/7/25, queued over an hour to get in, only just caught the start of the show-many didn't. Overpriced drinks and food. No legroom, packed too tightly in, very cramped and uncomfortable. Will never return!!
Went to see Stevie Wonder who was fantastic the coop however was not will never return. Stairs to seats were dark and steep leg room was tight. No escape route when at the top area. Screen way to small lighting was useless sound was good thanks to Stevie. Price not your every day shop £3.50 can of water disgusting food or the lack of it. No thank you. Staff were nice Stevie amazing venue rubbish come on at the prices charged we surely can do better.
Money making machine!! We were there at Stevie Wonder’s concert yesterday. The show was great. However, there was no public transport at 11 pm, no trams or buses. People were asked to walk all the way into the Manchester which took more then one hour!!
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Worst venue I’ve ever been to. Disorganised, not enough toilets, endless queues everywhere you look that just don’t move (that’s bars, toilets, merch), screens in the main hall not working properly, insane prices and sound was nothing special. Parking is a rip off, and badly organised. This is the kind of place that makes you think twice even if it’s your favourite band. Dreadful in every respect.
Well, after problems at Pitbull and Robbie it was iron maiden time. We booked the before and after show club. Only when we went for our seats we found there was no seats for us on the disabilities platform! We had paid for 112 row 24 327 328 however when we got there the steward said there were no seats! What had we paid for then? My sons autistic, dyspraxic with learning disabilities with fibromyalgia and walks with a stick...where was they supposed to put us then? The old steward kept looking over my son had a panic attack which led to medics and no show what's so ever...lost money lost show thanks to an incompetent steward and a problem with the seating....CO OP LIVE IS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY AND A TOTAL DISGRACE.....NEVER AGAIN WILL WE WASTE MONEY ON THESE IDIOTS
I'm sorry but the organisation for car parking is absolutely ridiculous and spoils the concert experience. We took 2 hours to travel 3 miles last night at Robbie Williams (10/06/2025). We had booked blue parking, and arrived 3 miles away from the venue at 18:45, thinking we'd have plenty of time to get in and settled for the support act before Robbie. However, after nearly 2 hours creeping along to cover 3 miles of dual carriageway cars, the left hand lane turned off to "orange" parking. We had pre-booked blue parking, £25, guaranteed space close to the arena as my wife has difficulty walking. We kept in the signposted right lane for blue parking, but then after the orange turn off it was a free for all to get back over to the left to turn into the "blue" parking - only to then be told by staff that the car park was full and we had to turn back to use the orange car park!!!! How can a pre-booked car park at £25 a pop be sold out??? No explanation - just turn round and park on orange. This was then a 15 minute walk to the arena, difficult for my wife, but we got there, missing the first 5 minutes of the concert. Didn't see the Lottery Winners at all and we were so pee'd off and fed up that it ruined the overall experience. It's a good job that seeing Robbie in person for the first time was worth it!!! Co-Op arena, the parking and organisation was a joke. 3 and a half hours for what should have been a 1 hour 20 minute journey for us, and 2 hours of it right outside the arena stuck in a queue of traffic that had not been accounted for. £25 pre-booked ticket was pointless, we might as well have paid £10 at one of the "dodgy" parking and walked the short distance even if my wife would have struggled. At least we might have got there on time to see the whole concert and not forced to arrive 5 minutes after Robbie had started. I'm sorrry Co-Op Live, but you have not got this right by a long shot - the venue is amazing but the parking has just not been sorted out and made it a very frustrating journey. We could have easily missed the concert if we had waited in traffic any longer. Very, very dissapointing and just not good enough....
Worse place ever . Don't ever book if your above a 36 waist cause you ain't going to fit in the seat there tiny . No room what so ever . No leg room cramped . Talk about expensive.. £6 for a few chips that are cold £11 a pint . Shocking will never return
price on the shelf pound £1 at the checkout 2.99 on several products about 300% different price but written in small letters that the low price is for people with a club card! idiots who stole personal data so you are punished for shopping in this store! robbed! I do not recommend!!!!!
Went to see Stevie Wonder, shambles getting in had to queue literally outside the Ethiad Stadium on the otherside! Not easy to get to and no restaurants or bars near by. Inside beers pumps etc not working, too many queues.I'll be sticking to the AO Arena
Had to queue for over an hour to get in to see Stevie Wonder. He started 20 minutes late but people were still probably queuing. Been to venues as big or bigger and never had the issues this has. Should have been sorted after being open so long!!
Terrible venue, been twice 1st time in December thought it might be a one off but went on Saturday for Pulp and it was worse. Massive queues outside (20min to get in) inside at bar (30min and gave up) toilets (not enough). Went back to bar at 8.20 to be told IPA sold out, went back at 9pm to another bar no draught beer only warm cans!! bought 4 330mm cans of cider for £28.80 (absolute rip off) exiting told to walk back on canal as it was quicker. Venue is too big no staff and to run out of beer is a joke. Terrible venue even though Pulp were amazing!!
Had us all queuing outside for 3 hours all the way around the eithad, whilst my partner was in a medical boot, had him standing for this amount of time in agony, We arrived at 6 when the doors were due to open, Doors didn’t open for another 1.5 hours due to a production issue, even though it was due to start at 7, Missed Bryson tiller as the opening act and missed the beginning of Chris brown, No refunds or compensation offered ether!
This place is an absolute joke. This was our 2nd visit and will definitely be the last. Unfortunately, last night was even worse than the first. The queues are massive. They simply don’t have enough facilities to handle the volume of people. 30 mins waiting at the Bar for a Drink. The service is so slow and when you get there don’t be surprised if they have run out of beer. You nearly fall on the floor at the price. £68.00 for 4 x 2 pint Glass of Grolsch. This was during the Gig not before the Gig. Lucky only 2 of us went to bar so at least the other 2 saw the full show. Not a patch on the Manchester Arena. Outclassed in every single area. The Co-Op have a lot of issues that they need to sort out. However, why would they bother. They have a captive audience at sellout shows buying beer at £9 a pint. They obviously don’t care as can be seen by the many unanswered complaints and 1 star reviews. Any other business area would fail with constant 1 star review. I also assume that this why there is no link on their website for Trustpilot.
Poor organisation from Co-op live! The venue is really nice and a lot of effort has gone into the building however last night we had to queue for ages for Chris Brown missing all the warm up acts due to an ‘issue with the doors’ surely if there’s issues they should of delayed the show? Luckily as we got seated Chris Brown came out but the queue was so long behind us I imagine lots of people missed his first songs …. Awful never seen anything like it! Doesn’t look like this is the first time it’s happened either reading other reviews for other performances. Will avoid going coop live and will stick to shows at the arena instead which is much more organised! Chris Brown was amazing!
I have given 1 because you can't do negative stars. I am disappointed that you make a complaint and the venue does not feel it appropriate to respond. I went to see Robbie Williams. I paid for a backstage pass. Total waste of money. The ticket states you access the venue an hour before general ticket admission. On this occasion this was far from the truth. The scanning machines were not working, it took till 6:10 to get them working. To get to access the arena we had no time to get the free drink or buy merchandise. When we did get in it seemed general access had been let in before we gained access. We went back to the backstage area after the show to buy the merchandise. That was closed. I have requested a refund. No communication at all. I will avoid purchasing tickets for this arena in the future.
Everything went wrong, it was the worst experience of my life, total waste of money.After receiving a email telling me the time was going to be 1 hour earlier than first being told, no reason, we went to coop at 6.30pm like we were told, they also changed our seats, no reason.we were kept waiting till 9.30pm before lionel richie came on the stage, no explanation, then because we had come by train, we only got to see 30minutes of his show, because the last train was at 10.45,pm , I couldn't of been more disappointed if I tried, completely lost any enthusiasm to go again.
Getting there was ok on the tram from Piccadilly. However the queues were so bad snaking up and down . With a guy on the mega phone barking orders to get you “ in the right q”. After 40 mins they decide we are going in another q ! When we got in we were told we could have gone in any one! Missed the support and we had arrived at 6! As for the coop app don’t bother !!
I feel I need to get this off my chest. Call me a Karen if you have to.... but.... why are gig tickets so expensive? Had my first experience at the Co Op live Manchester on Tues 10th June to see the man himself Mr Robbie Williams, now anyone who knows me, knows I actually love this guy and been to all his gig when in town. And of course last night was no exception, only when his tickets were released we (my friends and I) didn't have the budget to commit to tickets , as at that point they were to expensive for us, being an adult with families etc, and bills yawn yawn, this was just not doable. (It was a few years back though and was always a good giggle). Anyway, we all said no. Can't do it. So when another friend of mine said recently she had one for sale, I said yes, it was £100 for a seat up on level 3 of the arena. Not wanting to miss out (even though I hate sitting in the higher level at the MEN arena). I thought how bad can it be. Anyway, we sets off to the gig, no parking now where we've always parked.... (for free), it's all charged locations. So we pay a tenner. Not to bad i guess. On the approach to the arena we noticed no food outlets etc, just fancied something for tea as you do. Nothing around. Hey ho, we will get something inside. Treat ourselves. After a queue to get into section D we arrive at level 1, started well, looked like a really smart venue, we headed up the escalators (by passing level 2, literally) and stopped at level 3. (Our floor). But as we were heading up we noticed all the food places and restaurants and bars etc, and wondered how we get to them... Anyways we ask someone. And I was astonished we would have to buy tickets for this section at £40.. wft... we were told we could buy something from the co op shop!!! Nice. Not what I wanted to do, but not much choice. £3.90 for a can of still water!! Wft. We headed to our seats, block 309, and soon realised how high up and far back we actually were... absolutely no atmosphere, and a real fear of falling over , it was just terrible and it got me thinking... Why is it now that in order to have the best experience I have to be absolutely loaded???? Why is fun and experiences on levels??? I really felt like the poor man last night, and rightly put in my place. At the back. With lack of amenities. And I paid £100 for the ticket so to me that's a lot. Maybe I'm out of touch. What happened to the days where we all just paid the same price, and those die hard fans queued for the best seats or if you have aa standing ticket you got there early and queued. im all for that. I wouldn't have paid 166 for a lower tier, I just couldn't do it, and that's for robbie, God knows what other artist are charging. So thank you co op live for making me feel even though I work hard I may never get to see artists I like anymore and have that same experience I shared with my friends and hundreds of people way back when. You've priced me out of what I would be willing to pay to see a gig. Well done. You can stick your new arena up your arse, with its tiered luxury areas, and let all the tik tokers and insta photo taking, love island nobs have it all. I'll catch up on YouTube.
Seeing Lionel Richie tomorrow night. We booked 4 tickets all sat together then got an email saying our seats had been moved. As I bought 3 tickets first and then another ticket to join them, I have found the last ticket now is on the opposite side all alone. Thanks for already ruining our trip. Ticketmaster/co-op unhelpful/didnt reply
Co-op Live is the UK's largest entertainment arena, situated in Manchester, England. The venue hosts a diverse range of events, including concerts, sports, and live performances, catering to a wide audience of entertainment enthusiasts. With a focus on providing exceptional experiences, Co-op Live offers premium ticket options and unique pre-show experiences through the Co-op Backstage Club, enhancing the overall enjoyment for attendees. The arena serves as a key destination for both local and visiting fans, featuring performances from renowned artists and popular tours. By accommodating various events, Co-op Live attracts a broad demographic, including families, music lovers, and sports fans, ensuring a vibrant atmosphere for all guests.
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