A new, £36m music and conference centre is set to open this summer as Hull continues to build on its 2017 City of Culture success – a title it retains until the end of 2020. Yorkshire’s maritime city has already seen major regeneration and a big boost in visitor numbers around its City of Culture status.
Now, in yet another sign of confidence in Hull’s future, the city is set to unveil brand new facilities to help Hull host top conferences and leisure events.
Opening summer 2018, Hull Venue is a state-of-the-art music and events complex that can hold up to 3,500 people – firmly placing Hull on the map for hosting large corporate conferences, exhibitions and trade tours as well as major touring concerts, stand-up comedy, family shows and sporting events.
Situated close to key road and rail routes in and out of Hull, the Venue – on land behind Hull’s Princes Quay Shopping Centre – has already become an iconic landmark thanks to its striking design.
While its total capacity is 3,500, the centre will have the flexibility to reduce to a 2,500 all-seated event, plus it will also feature a separate conference auditorium and an 800-seat dining suite. The project will also add a new 350-space multi-storey car park.
For more ideas on what to do in Hull, read: Hull, a Surprising City of Culture.
Owned by Hull City Council, the Venue will be managed by SMG Europe – a world leader in venue management, operation and marketing – which also oversees the Manchester Arena and Metro Radio Arena Newcastle along with venues worldwide, including in the United States, Canada and Germany.
And already dates have been announced for the first concerts to be staged in the new centre – including Hull-born Reece Shearsmith returning to his home city to bring The League of Gentleman’s arena tour to the city in September 2018.
The brand new live show ‘The League of Gentlemen Live Again!’ is their first UK tour in 12 years, while October 2018 will see the arrival of ‘The Queen Experience’, a celebration of the legendary band’s music.
Although 2017 was a big year for Hull for major events, its UK City of Culture status runs though to 2020, before Coventry takes over the reins in 2021. A new Hull legacy company has been created, which aims to build on 2017’s success by continuing to commission world-class arts programming aimed at residents and visitors.
New research shows that the city is attracting record numbers of visitors with five-and-a-half million people visiting Hull in 2016 – a rise of nearly 12 per cent on the previous year – and it seems that trend continued last year with latest figures showing that the number of domestic visitors increased by 80 per cent during July to September 2017.
For more details about the Venue, see www.hull-venue.co.uk. For more details of events, places to stay and things to do in Hull: www.visit-hull.com
