Taking place in August, Live at Wythenshawe Park saw two nights of shows from headliners, Fontaines D.C. and Sam Fender, as well as guest appearances from Kneecap, Olivia Dean and Murder Capital, among others. For the 2025 edition, local production company Engine No. 4 (EN4) enlisted the creative capabilities of Serious Stages’ “production-led” Stellar Stage to enhance to experience of visiting artists and production teams.
The company, based in Somerset, unveiled the Stellar Stage in 2024, featuring goalpost trusses on either side to create a 40m frontage, making it more accommodating for complex productions and gives audiences a better view. “Before we created the Stellar Stage, we had a lot of clients coming to us asking for a flat roof because of the growing productions needing higher trim height,” Abbey Thomas, Operations Director at Serious Stages, explained. “The stage is 20m-wide, with 14m from the stage deck to the roof, which makes it a production-led stage.” This was important for the Wythenshawe Park shows, with the Serious Stages team even raising the deck height of its Stellar Stage to accommodate to the terrain of the park. “The site visit saw us become aware of the site being more of a bowl, so we made the adjustments to ensure crowds get a good view,” Thomas said. “Every show has its own quirks, whether it be because of surroundings or different production additions but it’s nothing that we can’t handle.”
Technical Production Manager, Dave Weeks, picked up the story: “Serious Stages are our preferred suppliers for other shows, including Parklife, and they have been great as always,” Weeks said. “This Stellar Stage has given us additional trim height and rigging capacity to carry the larger productions the headliners wanted to bring in. It has also allowed us to install more equipment ahead of event days, which has reduced the disruptions to the residents of Wythenshawe Park.”
Serious added two VIP viewing platforms on either side of the Stellar stage for the first time. This required some intricate design and engineering experience to optimise the guest viewing areas looking down onto the artists, while maintaining the working areas at the side of the stage, along with considerable rigging for LED screens and lighting.
In addition to the impressive staging setup, across the site innovation was in abundance. Freelance Operations Manager, Louise Renn, working with EN4, shared the adaptations the production company have made to be more conscious of the surrounding area: “We’ve added a gate over in the Northwest corner, which helps load the site efficiently, gives much better circulation, and has enabled us to increase capacity to 36,000. This increase has made us focus on the impact on the local community, but it is important to us that everybody gets a slice of the pie. Whether that is local businesses, residents or attendees, we want it to be as efficient as possible,” Renn said.
With announcements already made for the 2026 edition for Live at Wythenshawe Park, Serious Stages looks forward to another summer in South Manchester, especially as the days get shorter and colder…
