Manchester’s beleaguered Co-op Live arena has finally officially opened its doors after weeks of setbacks, cancellations and postponements.

The venue was initially due to fully open with two Peter Kay stand-up shows on 23 and 24 April, but these dates were pushed back when problems emerged at a test event headlined by Ricky Astley.

The Co-op Live’s new opening night was then due to be 1 May when US act A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie should have performed – but this was cancelled at the last minute as fans queued outside.

In the fortnight since, numerous other acts have been forced to postpone or move their Co-op Live gigs but the doors have finally opened to fans, with Manchester band Elbow taking to the stage this evening.

The show reportedly got under way a little late, with London band The WAEVE as the support act, the first to take to the stage as the massive arena began to fill with people.

Elbow took to the stage shortly after 9pm, with singer Guy Garvey shouting “let’s open this venue properly”, according to What’s On Editor for the Manchester Evening News Jenna Campbell, writing on X.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie’s last-minute cancellation two weeks ago came after part of the venue’s ventilation and air conditioning system fell from the ceiling during a soundcheck.

The venue’s boss said today that the accident could have been “catastrophic” if it had happened just 15 minutes later.

Read more: All the Co-op Live gigs cancelled or postponed

Signs Co-op Live is still a work in progress

Shingi Mararike

North of England correspondent

@ShingiMararike

The fact that the opening of Co-op Live has been beset by issues was not lost on Dermot and Diane as they stared up at the sleek black structure with a capacity of 23,500.

The couple, who had travelled from Lancaster, said they already had a Plan B to go to the Trafford Centre in Manchester for a meal if the concert failed to go ahead. As an Elbow fan, Diane saw the concert as an early treat for her 60th birthday.

Another group who travelled from Norwich for five hours also had their own backup plan if things didn’t go as they had intended.

Less than a month ago, the arena still looked like a building site, with workers in hard hats surrounding it.

This evening, there was not a crane in sight as the queue began to build. As scheduled, the gates opened at 6.30pm and hundreds of people slowly streamed in through the security gates, scanning their own tickets on the way into an atrium that had a huge LED screen taking up most of one wall, flashing with the names of the headliners.

Some people walking into the arena audibly gasped at its sheer size. From the self-scanning tills to the lights lining the escalators, the venue is as modern and sleek as advertised, but there were also signs that Co-op Live is still a work in progress.

Some security and hospitality staff seemed to be playing catch-up with the technology, while police officers in the venue were deep in conversation with both staff and Manchester City Council. Meanwhile, a woman hovered around the atrium with a notepad to check all the screens were working.

For this multi-million-pound venue and its financial backers, the first crowds through the doors and first notes finally being played must have come with a huge sigh of relief.

Tim Leiweke, chief executive of the arena’s operator Oak View Group, told BBC News: “They didn’t put the bolts in. It wasn’t visible to the eye and it fell out.

“So we [have since] got that double checked and triple checked. We’ve looked at thousands of bolts up in that ceiling now. We’ve looked at the life safety lines. And we were going to take our time to make sure we did this right.

“There was no way we were opening the doors until we checked every screw and every bolt and every one of those 95 shafts.”

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A number of Elbow fans at the venue admitted they were feeling “apprehensive” ahead of the gig.

“When you go anywhere you want to know about the structural integrity of the place you’re going to,” said Samantha, 51, who did not want to share her surname.

“I know all venues have to start somewhere but as long as they say everything is fine, that’s as reassuring as it can be.”

With a capacity of 23,500, Co-op Live is the UK’s latest indoor arena and it cost £365m to build.

This year’s Cannes Film Festival is getting under way with, as always, a French movie opening proceedings and celebrities lining the red carpet.

Lea Seydoux is among the stars in The Second Act, which tells the story of actors working on a doomed movie production – a delightfully wicked way to kick off the world’s most famous film festival.

Away from opening night, here are five more films playing at Cannes that are worth keeping an eye on.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

A post-apocalyptic action adventure, this is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road – which won six Oscars and is largely regarded as one of the best action films ever. Furiosa is by the same director, George Miller, and early reviews suggest it’s somewhat different to its predecessor but equally brilliant. With stars including Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hardy, it should be a great way to kick off summer blockbuster season – in cinemas from 24 May, so audiences who aren’t on the French Riviera don’t have long to wait too long.

Megalopolis

Legendary director Francis Ford Coppola‘s self-financed passion project is playing in competition at the festival. The filmmaker is reported to have spent several decades and more than a million dollars of his own money making the sci-fi, which is described as a Roman epic fable set in an imagined modern America. The ensemble cast includes Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman – and as Coppola’s first film to be released since 2011, expectations are high for this one.

The Apprentice

As Donald Trump continues to grab headlines in the US, this film looks at the former president’s life before politics, his career in real estate in New York in the 1970s and 1980s. Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, but little else is known about the drama ahead of its world premiere at Cannes. Promoters say it tackles themes of power, corruption and deception – so now it’s a watch and wait to see if the billionaire has anything to say about his life becoming fodder for the big screen.

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Horizon: An American Saga

Another passion project making its way to the south of France is the first half of this two-parter Western co-written, starring and directed by Kevin Costner. The actor first pitched a version of this movie back in 1988 so it’s been brewing since long before the Western drama series Yellowstone that he’s been busy with during recent years. Audiences will be going in knowing they won’t get the whole story, and with a 181 minute running time it’s quite the commitment – but perhaps not as big as Costner’s himself; he’s personally financed the films, which currently have a budget of almost $100m.

Kinds Of Kindness

Mere months after Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things won four Oscars, the director has got the gang back together for a new film premiering at Cannes, also starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley. Described as a “triptych fable”, the film tells three stories that are loosely connected. Known for his strange tales and specific vison, while Lanthimos’s movies aren’t for everyone they certainly can’t be accused of being dull. However, with little to be gleaned from the teaser trailer that’s been released so far, it will be all eyes on Cannes to see what audiences make of this one.

The creator and star of hit Netflix series Baby Reindeer has issued a fresh plea to fans to stop trying to discover the identities of characters in the show – and warned he will refrain from commenting for good.

Described as a true story, Richard Gadd’s series – in which he plays barman and aspiring comedian Donny Dunn – sparked an online frenzy over the real-life identities of some of the characters – including a stalker played by actress Jessica Gunning.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Gadd called on fans to stop their searches, saying: “If I wanted the real life people to be found, I would’ve made it a documentary”.

Gadd also said he was concerned any further comment on identities would cause yet more speculation.

“I’ve spoken publicly about how I don’t want people to do it and if I start playing a game of whack-a-mole, then I’m almost adding to it,” he added.

“I don’t think I’ll ever comment on it ever again.”

It follows a previous appeal in an Instagram story, when Gadd said: “People I love, have worked with, and admire… are unfairly getting caught up in speculation.

“Please don’t speculate on who any of the real-life people could be. That’s not the point of our show.

“Lots of love, Richard.”

Baby Reindeer is about the traumatic life of a struggling comedian who is stalked by a woman called Martha Scott and is sexually assaulted by someone seemingly high up in the entertainment industry.

In the opening sequence of the series, viewers are told in an on-screen message: “This is a true story.”

A woman alleged to be the inspiration for the stalker character of Martha has since appeared in an interview with journalist Piers Morgan, saying she was “forced” to come forward after receiving online death threats from “internet sleuths”.

Fiona Harvey repeatedly denied being a stalker and described the series as “a work of fiction”.

When asked if she will “categorically be taking legal action”, she replied: “Absolutely, against both him (Gadd) and Netflix.”

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Gadd’s interview with the Hollywood Reporter was published on Monday but was carried out before the Morgan interview with Ms Harvey aired.

Gadd also revealed he lost almost 20 kilos to play the role because he wanted “to feel vulnerable and fragile” in his body so when filming was over “there was a bit of piecing myself back together”.

“To play Donny Dunn, I had to go back to that head space where I was at the time [in real life], which was very raw and very damaged,” he added.