'I had to photograph my home's Oasis moment'

Sarah Spina-Matthews
BBC News, Manchester
Emma Gibbs A man with dyed blonde hair and a blue-patterned England football shirt on holds his arms wide and throws his head back on a street in the evening sunlight as people walk past him in the backgroundEmma Gibbs
Fans took the streets surrounding Heaton Park during the Oasis reunion gigs

"It feels like more than a gig. It feels like a bit of a Mancunian moment and a bit of a happening."

After decades of capturing the biggest names in music, photographer Emma Gibbs has seen most things, but the arrival of Oasis on her doorstep has been something different.

She was not intending to work the huge homecoming gigs at Heaton Park, but seeing the masses of fans milling around the streets near her Prestwich home, she felt she had to record it.

She said it was "a mix of people with tickets and people without tickets, all in this same place enjoying the moment".

Spurred on by the good vibes, Gibbs grabbed her camera and she joined the legions of fans on the borders of Heaton Park to document what she called the "really lovely atmosphere".

Across the afternoon and evenings of Friday and Saturday, she captured everything from Oasis-themed motorway signs and packed Metrolink platforms to people singing and dancing in the streets and ticketless fans gathering on what has been called Gallagher Hill, a vantage point where it was possible to see a small portion of the stage.

Emma Gibbs A black-and-white mural of Liam and Noel Gallagher painted on a brick wall behind a traffic cone and a yellow plastic stripEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A long queue of Oasis fans stand under the corrugated iron roof of a Metrolink platform as a yellow and black liveried tram and a pink liveried tram stand at the stopEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A long queue of Oasis fans in bucket hats, T-shirts and shorts walk beside the black iron railings of Heaton ParkEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A sign reading Oasis Live '25 Get Off Here hangs off a yellow stanchion at a corrugated metal-built tram stop in PrestwichEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A motorway sign above a carriageway, which has a few cars driving past into the distance, reads: M60 J19 - Concerts 11 & 12 July Delays PossibleEmma Gibbs

She said the atmosphere in the Bury suburb was fantastic, with the camaraderie between fans being boosted by the baking sunshine - and the need to pop on a bucket hat for protection.

"Standing on Bury Old Road, I just saw so many people in T-shirts, and new T-shirts that they'd gone out and bought," she said.

"It's this sense of uniform, of everybody going 'I'm part of the tribe and I'm going to wear the T-shirt as well'.

"Everybody wants to identify themselves."

Emma Gibbs A man in a pink bucket hat holds a sign reading: Tickets Wanted Oasis. People in bucket hats walk past himEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs Dozens of Oasis fans in bucket hats, T-shirts and shorts walk through the entrance into Heaton Park ahead of the band's gig at the siteEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A bare-chested man stands next to a stall selling black, green and beige bucket hats and various sunglasses. It has a sign on it which reads: Live '25 Merch Hats ShadesEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A number of Oasis fans in T-shirts, shorts and trainers sit in the shade of a wooded area alongside a path, which has been cordoned off with metal wire fencing, separating fans with Oasis tickets from those withoutEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A man in a white T-shirt stands in front of a stall selling red and blue bucket hats. Words on the T-shirt read: Listen Up, Shakermaker, Fade Away, Digsy's Dinner, Live Forever, Bring It On Down, Up In The Sky, Slide Away, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic, I Am The WalrusEmma Gibbs

She said she found fans from near and far soaking up the atmosphere, regardless of whether they had a ticket for the show.

"There was a couple of lads and they were like 'we didn't get tickets and so we've come down from Newcastle' and there were people from Wales," she said.

"I just thought it was extraordinary how people had travelled... just to be still part of that experience.

"People were in the street and dancing - there were a lot of kids and older kids and and then adults.

"It was multi-generational and everybody coming together."

Emma Gibbs A hospitality entrance sign hangs upside down on a green metal fence in front of foliage in Heaton ParkEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs Dozens of Oasis fans wearing T-shirts, shorts and bucket hats stand on a grass-covered hill behind a fence and between trees. The area has become known as Gallagher Hill, as it was the place where fans without tickets could catch a glimpse of the band's Heaton Park showsEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs Oasis fans queue by the side of a wall that marks the boundary of Heaton Park, while others cross a road from the Metrolink stop to the park in the backgroundEmma Gibbs

After decades of photographing Manchester's music scene, Gibbs said she had never seen that kind of buzz around a gig before.

"There's been quite that atmosphere of people going: 'I'm going to go and stand outside the gate and sing along'. That's a new one for me," Gibbs said.

"I don't feel disappointed that I'm not photographing the band.

"Weirdly, I'm enjoying photographing the fans."

Emma Gibbs A woman in a white dress and black trainers films another woman, in a black top, denim skirt and black trainers, on her phone as she dances in the street after Oasis at Heaton ParkEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs A woman in a black bucket hat and a white T-shirt holds her arms wide as she sings in the street surrounded by other people after Oasis at Heaton ParkEmma Gibbs
Emma Gibbs People in shorts and T-shirts walk up the road in the late evening light after Oasis at Heaton ParkEmma Gibbs

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