More than 20,000 fans from around the world flocked to Manchester’s Co-op Live stadium on Friday to see Harry Styles perform his first concert in two and a half years; some waited 48 hours to get a spot at the front.
Styles will perform his new album Kiss All the Time. Disc, Occasionally in its entirety, after its release today. Anticipation for the show had been high since tickets went on sale for £20 in early February, which, barring a performance of the album’s lead single, Aperture, at the Brit Awards, which took place at the same stadium a week earlier, will be the first time Styles has taken to the stage since closing a tour in Italy in July 2023. It has been marketed as a homecoming show for the pop star, who grew up just outside the city in Holmes. Chapel, Cheshire.
Outside the Co-op, a growing line of brightly dressed superfans (or Harries, as they are officially called) waited patiently to be let in, some of them wrapped in foil blankets to keep warm, as they had been in line since Wednesday to be able to make their way to the front of the barriers once the doors opened.
Four friends (Melissa, Dani, Begum and Jessica) had only been waiting in line for an hour and a half, but they were no less excited to see their idol finish his hiatus.
“We absolutely love him, we love his new album, it’s very danceable and fun and it’s going to be amazing,” said Begum, who also has tickets to see Styles twice on his world tour this summer. “We love his new age and he seems very happy, which makes us happy too.”
Kara Rosenberg, 27, traveled to Manchester from Chicago for the show and said it was a “once in a lifetime experience” to see him return.
“The first time I became a fan of him watching British X Factor with a VPN was in 2010,” she said. “It really brings me so much joy and so much nostalgia. I really love everything that he stands for and brings people together in such a positive way and I feel like he just spreads happiness wherever he goes.”
The £20 ticket price is considerably lower than this summer’s Styles concerts, staged as stadium residencies. Seated tickets for their now sold-out Wembley Stadium concerts started at £44 but rose to 10 times that amount, while standing tickets cost at least £144.
Some fans have complained on online forums about the cost of tickets, but others are clearly willing to spend. Richard, a security guard at the venue, said fans had arrived early on Friday morning hoping to be able to exchange spare parts for large sums of money.
“It’s crazy: One of the guys who works said someone paid a thousand dollars in cash for someone’s ticket,” he said. “There are a lot of them with signs asking for tickets. I saw someone offering pictures of their feet in exchange for a ticket. I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen that before.”
Among the masses without tickets are Lena, Alex and Natalie, three friends in their 20s who flew from Berlin to attend the concert. The trio, who met through their shared love of Styles, and between them have seen him 50 times, were adamant they would find a way into the concert.
“We all met because of Harry, so we have to be here tonight,” Lena said. “This is an experience that unites us, it is sacred. We have come to the end because we love Harry very much and because tonight is going to be very special.”
The friends had already had success with this method, having seen Oasis at Wembley last summer despite arriving at the venue without tickets in hand.
“The key is perseverance,” Alex said. “We feel very good about it, we are calm, we know we will get tickets. It will happen and we will be with Harry.”
Kiss all the time. Disco, Occasionally is expected to be Styles’ fourth consecutive number one album in the US and third chart-topper in the UK. (Their second album, Fine Line, peaked at No. 2.)
Reviews have been generally positive so far, with four-star ratings from publications including NME, Rolling Stone UK and The Independent.
Alexis Petridis of The Guardian was more reserved, giving it three stars because it “lacked unambiguous pop hits like As It Was or Watermelon Sugar.” He also criticized the lyrics: “A sense of musical vagueness is compounded by what Harry Styles sings… As Kiss All the Time suggests. Disco, the title of Occasionally – which sounds like something you’d see on a sign in a certain type of person’s kitchen, next to a sign informing you that it’s prosecco o’clock – the album has a problem with words.”
