(Image: Supplied)
The goal should be to turn one of the biggest gigs in the calendar into lasting growth, using exceptional trading days to build capabilities that endure, writes Martyn Kendrick, Regional Director for Scotland at Bank of Scotland
Oasis are coming back to Scotland and for Glasgow’s businesses that should be music to their ears.
Following the huge success of the band’s reunion tour in 2025, the newly announced dates at Celtic Park in 2027 will bring thousands of fans to Glasgow for one of the biggest cultural events of the year.
And if the last tour is anything to go by, they will arrive ready to spend. Research ahead of Oasis Live ’25 estimated that fans would spend an average of more than £766 each attending a show, including tickets but also secondary spending on accommodation, food, drink, outfits and merchandise.
That illustrates why the opportunity for Glasgow begins long before the first chord is struck and extends well beyond Celtic Park.
Fans will need somewhere to stay, eat and drink, they will use taxis, trains and buses, browse shops and explore the city. Some will make a weekend of it and with a band that inspires the kind of devotion Oasis does, many will want the whole experience rather than simply a ticket to the show.
Glasgow’s music economy is electric
Glasgow became the UK’s first UNESCO City of Music in 2008 and today hosts around 130 music events every week, with more than half a million people attending gigs in its venues each year.
Those venues range from the OVO Hydro and Hampden Park to the Barrowland Ballroom and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, the latter being the venue where Oasis were famously spotted by Creation Records boss Alan McGee in 1993.
And music is only part of Glasgow’s cultural and events economy given the city has just demonstrated its ability to host another major international occasion through the 2026 Commonwealth Games, bringing visitors and activity to businesses across Glasgow.
Oasis, then, are giving Glasgow’s established cultural economy another opportunity to grow, bringing visitors who could become regular customers of the city’s businesses.
Martyn Kendrick, Regional Director for Scotland at Bank of Scotland (Image: Supplied)
Some might say it’s a supersonic opportunity
The lesson for Glasow’s businesses is that companies do not need to be inside Celtic Park to benefit.
A bar or restaurant could create an Oasis-inspired menu or pre-concert package while hotels could develop weekend offers that encourage fans to stay longer and see more of Glasgow. Independent retailers could introduce Britpop-inspired ranges, while record shops and music businesses can use the concerts to celebrate the band’s history and Glasgow’s own place within it.
There is evidence fans want that wider experience as during the 2025 tour, official Oasis fan stores opened in host cities, including Edinburgh, selling clothing, accessories and exclusive vinyl, while Murrayfield Stadium operated a touring merchandise store on non-show days too.
For Glasgow businesses, complementary experiences can give fans another reason to spend time, and money, in the city and introduce them to places they will want to visit again.
Encouragingly, Scottish businesses are already thinking about growth and investment.
Bank of Scotland’s September Business Barometer found that 46% of Scottish firms expect to increase staffing levels over the next year. Meanwhile, 47% plan to evolve their offering through new products or services over the next six months and 45% intend to invest in training their teams.
For businesses preparing for the Oasis gigs, that could mean additional staff and stock, alongside better booking and stock-management systems and training that helps teams handle peak demand, and those improvements can keep paying off across Glasgow’s busy events calendar.
Preparing for that demand requires investment and businesses need to plan their cashflow carefully, but the bigger prize comes afterwards. Businesses should think about how they can turn someone visiting Glasgow for Oasis into a customer who returns. Understanding spending patterns, maintaining customer engagement and using a busy concert weekend to test new products, partnerships or services can help turn a short-term spike in demand into something more enduring.
An investment made to coincide with the Oasis tour dates should, wherever possible, leave the business stronger afterwards whether through greater capacity, better technology, a more skilled workforce or a larger customer base.
Making the opportunity live forever
Glasgow’s connection with Oasis began more than three decades ago in a small venue on St Vincent Street and in 2027, the band will return to play on an altogether different scale.
For Glasgow businesses, there is a similarly big opportunity.
Major cultural events show what can happen when a city’s venues, businesses, transport networks, hospitality sector and creative community come together. They bring people into Glasgow, create reasons for them to stay and give local firms a chance to demonstrate what they can offer.
The goal should be to turn one of the biggest gigs in the calendar into lasting growth, using exceptional trading days to build capabilities that endure.
Glasgow already knows how to put on a show and for its businesses, the opportunity is to make sure the benefits live forever.