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Oasis fans share footage and memories as the band mark the 30th anniversary of Knebworth: “Everyone was happy. It was one huge celebration”

Oasis fans share footage and memories as the band mark the 30th anniversary of Knebworth: “Everyone was happy. It was one huge celebration”

Oasis fans have been sharing footage and memories as the band mark the 30th anniversary of their legendary Knebworth concerts.

READ MORE: An Oasis fan remembers the band’s Knebworth shows: “It was a non-stop party”

Today (August 10) marks 30 years since the band first played their 1996 super gigs, which sold out in under 24 hours and saw them welcome 250,000 fans across two nights. There were reportedly 2.6million people scrambling to get tickets for those 1996 shows – the equivalent of 5 per cent of the entire UK population – and the demand was so high that they could have sold out 20 nights at the venue.

The band later released a live album from the shows and later celebrated the 25th anniversary with a feature-length documentary, which went on to become the country’s highest-grossing documentary film of 2021.

Today, Oasis took to Instagram to share pictures and footage from the shows.

Many fans also took to social media to share footage and their memories from 30 years ago.

One fan wrote: “It was my fifth or sixth Oasis gig but this was just on another level We managed to get on to the roof of a burger van right at the back of the bowl for the big finish, and watching 125,000 people absolutely loving life as the opening bars to Champagne Supernova were struck up was like a moment in time.”

Another added: “I remember them walking onto the stage with those huge balloons being thrown into the crowd. I remember my excitement, my tears. I even remember plastic chickens flying around near me. Everyone was happy. It was one huge celebration. It felt like all of us were there together with them. Everyone just wanted to have fun, sing along and have the best night of their lives and that’s exactly what it was for me.”

One concert goer added: “There’s something slightly unreal about Knebworth being 30 years ago…the crowd, that moment, that version of Oasis ..it feels like something that should exist in a photograph rather than in actual history…yet here we are, still talking about it& LIVING it.”

NME was at one of the shows 30 years ago and we said: “Oasis’ double header at Maine Road months earlier was arguably a better gig but Knebworth felt like an era defining event. It was so colossal it was ridiculous. Even guitarist Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs admitted that the band should have quit following their huge outdoor shows, knowing that it really couldn’t get any better than this.”

The support bands also had their own stories to tell, including The Charlatans who tragically lost their keyboard player Rob Collins in a car accident just three weeks before their Knebworth slot. “We brought people down to their knees, down to tears!,” Tim Burgess told NME, a decade after the gigs. “I think if we’d played badly that would have been the end of the band, but we didn’t. It was a pivotal moment in The Charlatans story.”

Prodigy mastermind Liam Howlett described his own experience of playing in front of 250,000 people as a “big fucking rave”, adding: “Knebworth was just beautiful, loads of people were on Es everywhere and stuff. It was an event never to be repeated, it was a moment in time.”

Liam later played two solo shows there in 2022, which drew in approximately 170,000 fans over two nights.

Just days before the 30th anniversary, the promoter of Oasis’ huge ‘Live ‘25’ tour was granted a licence to host gigs at Knebworth, making rumours of a 2027 comeback more likely.

SJM concerts secured the licence from North Hertfordshire Council, meaning that they now have the ability to plan and host events at the iconic space. The licence allows for events up to 125,000 people, and permits the promoter to plan live music events that can run up to 3am.

Last month, rumours emerged that Oasis were looking to follow up their huge 2025 reunion tour with another run of UK and European dates in 2027. Among the dates speculated included a 12-night homecoming residency in Manchester and a return to Knebworth.

There have been rumours of a return to the Hertfordshire space circulating since 2025, when a British peer stood up in the House of Lords’ upper house last year and claimed that Liam and Noel Gallagher would be playing five, back-to-back anniversary gigs there in 2026. She would later backtrack on the comments.

The rumours that arose last month of more tour dates in 2027 came after “a number of sources” close to Manchester City FC reportedly shared that there were 12 shows planned for the Etihad Stadium.

Nothing has been confirmed yet, but if residency shows are announced, tickets are likely to come on sale this summer. It also seems likely that dates would take place in May and June, as Man City’s fixture list for 2026/2027 means that their last home game is on Saturday May 23.

Meanwhile, Oasis are set to release a new Steven Knight-directed documentary next month, and the first trailer dropped earlier this summer.  Don’t Look Back In Anger will be released in cinemas and on IMAX on September 11, before becoming available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu around the world at a later date in 2026.

The latest clips show Liam and Noel backstage, promising that the reunion shows were “going to be chaos”. Since then, it has also been reported that Noel and Liam will attend the Venice Film Festival together for the premiere.

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