![\"340,000](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_Parklife-Festival-2017.jpg\")
340,000 Oasis fans will head into Heaton Park this July (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\nOasis will play five huge shows at Heaton Park this July, and 1.3 million tourists are expected to visit the city this summer<\/p>\n
06:13, 29 Jun 2025Updated 13:01, 30 Jun 2025<\/p>\n
340,000 Oasis fans will head into Heaton Park this July (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
In a nondescript office building just beyond Piccadilly Station, the people who will determine how hundreds of thousands of gig-goers move around the city this summer are busy at work.<\/p>\n
Rows of staff with headsets look out onto over 40 screens, with real-time feeds from around 4,000 cameras detailing the ebb and flow of Greater Manchester\u2019s intricate road, rail, bus and tram system.<\/p>\n
They look out for incidents as they occur and monitor the flow of traffic. If required, they can alter traffic light timings to relieve congestion with just the touch of a few buttons.<\/p>\n
BE HERE NOW! <\/strong>Win last-minute Oasis tickets to the Heaton Park homecoming gigs by clicking HERE<\/strong><\/a>… and join our Oasis WhatsApp group while you’re at it HERE.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n They keep an eye on the buses, trams and trains through a multi-agency approach, then relay vital information to the public via digital road signs, Metrolink<\/a> travel boards, social media and the Bee Network app.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a 24-hour job and a mammoth operation, but those working in the control room at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) headquarters are well prepared to monitor the thousands of roads and complex transport network – and crucially keep Manchester moving.<\/p>\n A variety of teams work from the control room, including the police, network intelligence and drone unit amongst others, and as well as the day-to-day surveillance, specialist equipment is used to track who is travelling and where from using mobile data, while drones and AI systems are used to improve the network and collect information to prepare for huge influxes of people heading in and out of Manchester.<\/p>\n It is this latter function that will come into sharp focus over the coming weeks as the city prepares for millions of people to flood here for an epic summer of events.<\/p>\n An incredible 1.3 million music tourists are expected to visit Manchester this summer during an unmissable two months of live music.<\/p>\n Headline outdoor concerts from Elbow, Fontaines DC, Sam Fender and Hacienda Classical at Wythenshawe<\/a> Park and Castlefield Bowl bookend the summer, as well as indoor concerts from the likes of American superstars Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.<\/p>\n But it is the long-awaited Oasis homecoming gigs at Heaton Park<\/a> that anchor the season – and it\u2019s at the forefront of TfGM’s plans as they head into July.<\/p>\n Liam and Noel Gallagher confirmed last August that they would reunite after a 16-year hiatus for Oasis Live ’25<\/a>. They’ll play a series of stadium and outdoor shows in Cardiff, Manchester, London, Dublin and Edinburgh, before embarking on a run of shows around the globe.<\/p>\n Here in Manchester they’ll play several dates, starting with back-to-back shows on Friday, July 11 and Saturday, July 12, before returning on Wednesday, 12 July and finishing up with weekend shows on Saturday, July 19 and Sunday, July 20.<\/p>\n Preparations are well underway with signs appearing in Heaton Park, local residents issued guidance and an official Heaton Park concerts website page set up and updated.<\/p>\n But behind the scenes, in the control room of TfGM, people are working around the clock to ensure that the city can cope with the volume of people that will be attending the gigs, as well as those visiting the city to soak up the atmosphere of Oasis Live \u201825.<\/p>\n For seven years now, the control centre has been headed up by Maggie Carter, TfGM\u2019s Head of Network Development, who tells the Manchester Evening News during a visit, that they are well placed to manage big events, but Oasis has required a tailored approach.<\/p>\n \u201cOn a normal day we have lots of different personnel in here, we have the operational control centre staff, bus franchise operators, digital engagement officers, and basically we\u2019re looking at keeping Manchester moving by looking across the whole transport network, all the modes of transport and trying to make sure customer journeys are smooth and efficient,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve never really had something like this before, but we have Parklife every year and we\u2019re very used to planning for that and normally on that weekend, we\u2019ll have a number of other events and concerts going on.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Parklife and Oasis this year, the planning started around Christmas<\/a>, and we attend a lot of multi-agency meetings about it, we\u2019re part of the the Greater Manchester planning process for those meetings as well as the city council meetings, and we look at the traffic management plans from a transport angle to say what we know works normally and the lessons we\u2019ve learnt from other years previously.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of scale, over the course of five dates, 340,000 people will flood into Heaton Park to see the Gallagher brothers this July. 72,500 people will attend each of the weekend shows, while 50,000 will be in attendance on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n In terms of demographics and details on where fans are travelling from, TfGM have at their disposal data insights which break down how many people at each gig are travelling from around the North West of England, as well as nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n They can also predict based on this how people will travel to and from the gigs, with the Metrolink, shuttle buses and bus network predicted to account for around half of the gig-goers transport means.<\/p>\n This information allows them to tailor the transport provision, and manage the flow of people flowing in and out of the park.<\/p>\n Plans include a pop-up bus station in both the Northern Quarter<\/a> as well as a temporary station inside the park, as well as taxi ranks on Bury<\/a> Old Road and Blackley New Road – the latter a change from events such as Parklife.<\/p>\n On each night, including Sundays, there will be a six-minute service from Victoria Station to Bury, and Victoria Station will be the only city centre with a direct tram to the park.<\/p>\n In a move that will be warmly welcomed by Oasis fans, trams will also run until 2am back to town for the weekend dates, and slightly earlier back to Bury.<\/p>\n Measures are also in place to make sure there is sufficient messaging, wayfinding and app updates for those travelling to the gigs from outside the region to help them navigate the city and ensure a seamless journey to Heaton Park.<\/p>\n These elements boxed off and planned for, back in the control room, attention turns to the gigs themselves and the provision and flexibility required to be prepared for all eventualities.<\/p>\n Challenges already identified include city centre congestion, the split between international visitors and Greater Manchester residents, school finish times on the Wednesday night and rush hour on the Friday, plus the proportion on un-ticketed fans who may descend on Heaton Park.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s different for the big events is that we tend to have more partners co-located in with us,\u201d explains Maggie.<\/p>\n \u201cSo on a normal working day we have the major franchise operators, but for a big event we\u2019ll also have colleagues from National Highways and from Network Rail, and they will be in with us for all the Oasis gigs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe also bring in extra staff into the control room because we need to do extra modal monitoring, and we also have digital engagement officers to deal with passenger enquiries and public-facing contact.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very busy on big event days like that, and I also send representatives over to police headquarters, and the event team go to the event headquarters so it\u2019s a bit of a triangle between the event control room, the police control and the transport control room here.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s intensive planning because there are a lot of elements to think about, our team have to make sure they have all the right information about the transport operation, the traffic management plans that affect the highways, the public-facing messaging – so information for if you\u2019re travelling to the concerts, but also if you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Oasis specifically, we\u2019ll be doing an hour-by-hour breakdown of what our staff should be looking for, so this is when traffic management might be going out, messages at the side of the road, this is when you might see queues forming, this is when you might need to look at different CCTV, this is when tram stops closes.\u201d<\/p>\n For each show at Heaton Park, Maggie will have at least six staff and a manager dedicated to just the event, plus additional facilities management staff in the control room, additional digital engagement officers, members from the bus team and highways department, UTC engineering colleagues – all which to amounts of a doubling of usual resource.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re well versed and experienced in these events but the main difference between Parklife and these shows is how people come and go.<\/p>\n \u201cFor Parklife it\u2019s softer because people will spread themselves out depending on which acts they want to see and if they want to be in the park all afternoon, and exit will be the same, so might not stay to the end.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you get Oasis and everyone wants to get in at the same time, everyone wants a prime spot, then they all stay until the end and leave at the same time, so you don\u2019t have the same opportunity to smooth that traffic flow of people and traffic flow around the event, it just happens.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to Parklife a few weeks ago, Indie rockers Catfish and the Bottlemen played Heaton Park on the Friday night ahead of the festival, this event gave TfGM an opportunity to test the traffic management plans, assess whether they had enough people on the ground in the right places, and make any necessary adjustments.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a few things that weren\u2019t quite right and we tweaked those for Parklife.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the agencies know they have to build that flexibility in, things happen, the weather happens, emergency works on the highway, diversions, road accidents, so if you don\u2019t have flexibility you could be in a bit of a mess.<\/p>\n The other things TfGM is acutely aware of is customer behaviour and preferences, with driving posing one of the greatest challenges.<\/p>\n Extra trams are being laid on, a shuttle service will take people directly to Heaton Park, but despite pleas for people to use public transport, a proportion of those attending the gigs are still expected to try and travel to the shows via car in spite of the road closures, diversions and likely congestion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard because a lot of people are wedded to their cars,\u201d offers Maggie.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got to make the public transport options attractive.<\/p>\n “Our customer team do a lot of work to tell people how long it takes to get to and from the park on the bus and the tram, highways will be congested, people do see that in the news about how much traffic is around these concerts, so getting that message out that it is quicker to either use public transport or you will be stuck in your car for a long time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe message is always plan ahead, always check the travel advice because things can change, we really do try and push people to public transport.<\/p>\n “You can get a lot of people on a bus or tram compared to 2-4 in a car, so when you have those high volumes, there\u2019s going to be a lot of traffic, so the advice is to really plan ahead and use public transport where you can because it will really help with the amount of people going to these Oasis hows.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oasis will play five huge shows at Heaton Park this July, and 1.3 million tourists are expected 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Maggie Carter, Head of Network Development in the Control and Operational Support Team (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![\"Heaton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_JRP_MEN_020625_heaton_014JPG.jpg\")
Heaton Park is gearing up for Oasis Live ’25(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![\"Look](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1751308092_859_1_TFGM-control-centre.jpg\")
Look inside TFGM control centre, as it gears up towards the upcoming Oasis gigs at Heaton Park(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_oasis10.jpg\")
The countdown has nearly finished for Oasis Live 25 – (Image: Simon Emmett)<\/p>\n![\"Transport](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2_201124tfgm10.jpg\")
Transport for Greater Manchester ( tfgm ) control centre at Piccadilly Place in Manchester(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![\"Heaton](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_JRP_MEN_020625_heaton_005JPG.jpg\")
Heaton Park prepares Oasis concerts(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![\"Oasis](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_DBR_MEN_2306525Tram_04.jpg\")
Oasis Live ’25 tram in Manchester – with the song title “She’s Electric” to celebrate the arrival of the band to Heaton Park this summer(Image: TfGM)<\/p>\n![\"Parklife](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_130625parklife22.jpg\")
Parklife 2025 (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n![\"Preparations](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_JRP_MEN_020625_heaton_008JPG.jpg\")
Preparations are underway for the Oasis Heaton Park gigs this summer(Image: Jason Roberts \/Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n