A magnificent venue with a magnificent reputation, the AO Arena Manchester is as iconic as they come. From the vast Bowl Floor space, to amazing lounges and masterfully designed meeting spaces this venue has everything - and in hiring it, your event could stand in the same spot that legends like Prince, Madonna and The Rolling Stones have stood!
The AO Arena is located bang in the middle of Manchester. Thanks to the city's excellent tram system, it makes getting anywhere you need to go - a doddle. Did we mention Manchester Victoria station is less than a minute's walk from the building
The venue has some amazing meeting spaces - each is totally unique - these aren’t just different takes on the same blank room - these are fully fleshed out, brilliant, events spaces. We adored the versatility each offered, across this venue, you could genuinely host any kind of event, conference, convention, exhibition, party or something completely new - we can say with confidence that this venue has got you covered.
Capacity wise, this venue is off the scale. In their live entertainment set up the venue can host events for 21,000 and the area has the infrastructure to boot. Across the road is a CitiPark with 958 spaces, as well as there being over 2500 hotel rooms, across several hotels, within a couple of minutes’ walk to the Venue! But where they really excel is the flexibility on events and banquests up to 1,000 people - that is the real sweet spot here!
When we arrived on our AO adventure, the first thing that struck us was the location. We’ve been here before for some incredible gigs but seeing it with our event prof goggles on puts into perspective just how conveniently located this venue is - The foyer entrance leads straight to the station, and it’s from this same space that you can access most of the venue. The central Manchester location means that it’s extremely close to many of Manchester's top attractions; The Football museum, Arndale Shopping centre and Imperial War Museum North are within touching distance - and there’s two premier league football clubs at either end of the city, to boot!
As we met the staff here, they told us about the very exciting prospect of the venue’s 30th anniversary renovations, to commemorate the milestone, the venue is getting £50,000,000 worth of refurbishment and transformation that will revitalise this venue and bring it to a new level. The team told us their motto was to ensure that the next three decades are as incredible as the first.
That transformation has already begun, in March 2024, they opened the new Concourse, the high-end Mezz Bar and stunning Mezz Restaurant, all three of which we absolutely loved - we were even lucky enough to enjoy a bite to eat in the Mezz. Along with this, the venue has also implemented new artist dressing rooms and production areas, as well as a world-class green room with meet and greet facilities. We mean… wow! We’re always a fan of a venue striving for more, especially when they already have such world class spaces within their fold. The way the team told us about these upgrades showed there was a real hunger to push this venue to the next level and to continually strive to be the best… consider us impressed.
As we explored this space, our first impressions were of its massive array of spaces to use, and particularly how good the upkeep was of all areas around the venue. This is a highly versatile and flexible venue with every area spotless and orderly - ready for use! It’s a totally different vibe here, not on a concert day - the atmosphere remains, but the chaos subsides for whatever brilliant event you’re hosting!
Address: AO Arena Manchester, Victoria Station, Manchester, M3 1AR
Website: www.ao-arena.com
Conference Sales Contact: Amy King
Email: talktous@eu.asmglobal.com
Distance from nearest airport: 10 miles and under one hour by train or tram
Distance from nearest railway station: 1 minute walk from Victoria station
Parking: CitiPark adjacent has 958 spaces
Wi-fi: Free Wi-Fi plus premium Wi-Fi in hospitality areas
Every lounge and bar at the AO Manchester has its own catering facilities along with the brand new Mezz Restaurant. Whilst we visited, we were lucky enough to dine at the Mezz and let us tell you the food was outstanding! This was a brilliant curveball we never expected - the venue shattered our expectations of just being a large blank canvas space and has opened up many new avenues for events with these brilliant additions. Our dinner included their signature dessert, a striking black honeycomb chocolate mousse filled with loads of little surprises like a lime & elderflower gel, bee pollen and crunchy honeycomb.
During our dinner, we met Executive Chef Tim Kewley who has produced the restaurant's menu and leads the passionate team here. Not only was he super passionate about the food they have to offer, but he also let us in on an amazing fact: The honey used in the dessert comes from the hives of local icon Bez from the Happy Mondays. Talk about trivia! When we say this was some of the nicest food we’ve had in a long time, we mean it. The Mezz is a brilliant new surprise that is the flagbearer for the new wave of exciting changes sweeping across this venue!
Private dining wise, the team here offer dining experiences on show days. As well as this, the Arena and all of their available spaces are available for private hire, so whether you’re hosting a party, a conference or awards dinners, AO Arena has you covered! The team can offer canapes, street food, fine dining and so much more to truly elevate your event to the next level. A touch we really liked was the ability to use the retail kiosks for larger scale conferences, we can see this being super useful when you want to be able to offer catering that’s just off the main bowl floor!
We’ve sung the arena’s praises already, but you haven't heard the half of it until you’ve heard about their amazing meeting spaces. There’s so much flexibility on offer here, it’s clear that there’s been a real focus on the ability to tailor spaces to precisely the needs of your event, it’s evident in the original and new rooms alike.
The venue is split across five floors and the spaces occupy all the way up. On the ground floor you’ll find access to the largest space, the bowl floor, as week as the Green Room and lower concourse. On level 0.5 is the brand new Mezz bar and restaurant, tucked away on its own private level. Then scaling up a level, you’ll find the Icons bar and the Beautiful North space. On floor two is the Electric lounge, which is accessible via the first floor. Above all of this, all the way up on level 5 is the Heineken sky lounge, a brilliant space - which we will get to in the highlights.
Registration for large events can be done on the first floors foyer area or the ground floor, it really all depends on what kind of event you’re running, if it’s a larger event like an expo or large scale dinner using the bowl floor, then the ground floor is the way to go!
The focus here across all of the meeting spaces is clearly on entertainment and it’s apparent that’s what the venue has always stood for, looking back across their incredible history of hosting some of the greatest ever artists in music and comedy. Product launches and conferences are absolutely at home in a large space like the bowl floor which can really utilize the magnitude of technical facilities the venue has on offer.
A non-highlight area we loved was the dressing rooms which are available to hire. This is such a cool touch, they’re such intimate spaces that the outside world doesn’t normally ever get to see, so imagining the legends that have occupied these spaces would be sure to give any event-goer a kick of excitement. With some imagination (that we know all of the event-profs on the Delegate Wranglers have in abundance!) these could be some brilliant breakout rooms that you could theme around artists names or even just making the delegates the artists - so many opportunities with these brilliant, totally unique spaces!
Meeting Space Highlight : Bowl floor with Adjacent Lower Concourse
The main Bowl floor has just over 3000 square meters of flexible space. Wowzer. Not to mention that there’s another 1500 square meters in the concourse that can be used so many different ways, we’re thinking catering, reception, or even - if you fancy going wild - an after-party for your expo! The Bowl floor itself can be cross draped as well as the upper tiers of the arena covered to create a more intimate event space, we saw this draping in action and it totally changes the space from a vast open area to a much more personal and social area. This is a truly massive space that’s brill for conferences, networking, exhibitions, and so much more, you have basically infinite options with this area that can cater for literally thousands of delegates.
Size: Sq.M 3000
Reception: 4500
Theatre: 2500 with stage
Cabaret: 700
Dinner: 750-1300 depending on stage / dance floor etc/ formal or street food dining
AV Equipment included: NO just stage and seating
-----------------------------------
Meeting Space Highlight : Mezz Bar and Restaurant
The first thing to know is that the bar and restaurant are two separate spaces, and as such, can be hired independently, together or as an addition to a larger event. This Bar as we mentioned earlier is part of the fabulous fifty million pound renovations and absolutely sets the standard for what catering can look like in gigantic expo style venue such as this. This is a modern, funky and exciting space which features so many fantastic touches that really show off the events and design team’s experience - they have their fingers on the pulse of the industry and have made so many brilliant additions to make this a knockout area. For example, the flexible bar furniture can be alternated, or swapped out at any time, and the bar itself has its own kitchen just off the space. If you’re looking to host a networking event - we declare your search over, this is the spot!
Natural light: no
Reception: 230 bar and 150 restaurant
Theatre: circa 90 bar
Cabaret: Circa 80 bar
Dinner: 230 bar and 150 restaurant
AV Equipment included: None however DJ’s have access to a plug’n’play to connect.
-----------------------------------
Meeting Space Highlight : Heineken Sky Bar
This is the most premium feeling space in the venue, on the fifth floor you really feel at the top of the world when looking out over the Manchester cityscape. The space has its own entrance and a lift that takes you directly to the floor, many a premium or high profile guest have used this lounge to view concerts in a more private space. The team told us they have big plans in the 30th anniversary refurb for this space; they’re knocking down the partition wall and opening up the area to increase the capacity and improve the openness of the room. When we were visiting, the flexibility that’s deeply embedded in the philosophy of this venue was apparent, with the sky bar set up with a boardroom and looking like a really special place to work - this is another knockout area that just adds another string to this venue’s bow.
Natural light: Yes
Reception: 230
Theatre: 200
Cabaret: 90
Dinner: 60-80
AV Equipment included: One screen
Summary
And that’s about it, we’ve tried to do justice to the incredible breadth and scope of this venue, but even then, this is one you have to see for yourself, there’s a massive array of options just waiting to be utilized for your next event. The food was knockout, the team were kind, considerate and most of all, extremely knowledgeable. Everything was spot on. All that’s missing now is you, so come down and have your next event rock out at the AO Arena Manchester!