The BRITS land in Manchester: The city’s economic growth is powering a cultural renaissance

Manchester has always been good at turning culture into activity.

What’s changed is that it’s now turning culture into an asset. An asset that pulls people in, keeps them spending, and rewrites what the UK think the city is for. Manchester is moving from economic boom to an established global city. This time, culture is not being captured by London – it is harnessed by Manchester itself to claim a place on the global stage.

Manchester’s average 3.1% annual growth over 10 years – almost double the UK average – provides the platform to welcome the 1.2 million people who visited the city last summer to watch live music. This growth underpins investment, infrastructure and the vibrant activity that makes Manchester ready to host major cultural moments.

Last year’s OASIS reunion was a turning point. Manchester began to hit headlines, not only for bucking economic trends but as a cultural export. When the reunion tour was announced, the immediate economic impact was predictable: travel, hotels, hospitality, retail, transport – the full ‘we’re making a weekend of it’ economy – averaging around £500 per visitor. The final numbers reported £940m total economic contribution, £544.9m circulating within local communities, roughly £55m of real activity per concert. Not headline “your GDP,” but money moving through actual businesses, actual wages, actual supply chains.

Let’s take that Oasis effect – mass attention, strong identity, people travelling to participate – and swap fandom for prestige. That’s what hosting the BRITs achieves. The immediate economic activity still happens in the obvious places: rooms, meals, crews, production suppliers, the whole ecosystem that assembles around a major broadcast event. A packed Co-op Arena, overnight stays, a good night out and £4m-5m direct local economic impact. But the massive value happens the morning after, in people’s heads:

“This is happening in Manchester, not London. And it is better, slightly grittier, a little edgier and more authentic”.

That’s why Co-op Live becoming the new home of The BRIT Awards matters beyond the headline. Broadcast on ITV, explicitly framed as Manchester welcoming the BRITs., the audience – packed with students from the city’s universities – signals a reenergising of the awards. It is no surprise the BRITS moved to Manchester to invigorate itself. Quite simply, this is a public signal that the national cultural calendar is being redrawn, and Manchester is a significant player.

These signals add up. Each prestige event – the BRITs, Factory International, the wider creative infrastructure taking shape around the city – reinforces the story. Manchester is now where the UK’s cultural industries convene. More will come: the MOBO Awards are announced for March 2026, English National Opera is moving to the city in 2029, and the increased capacity of Co-op Arena welcomes global events.

The economic impact is simple – direct spend is welcome – but it is not the main event. The new reputational flywheel transforms Manchester from simple activity into presence. Prestige makes the city feel lower-risk and more inevitable, changing decisions about where talent moves, where productions base themselves, where brands activate, where investors place bets, where the next big cultural breakthrough happens.

Last year Oasis gave Manchester a globally exportable story. The BRITs along with the wider activity now forming around the city, show how Manchester is turning that story into something repeatable: a cultural renaissance transforming economic growth into global status.