Access All Areas, the final contract for the development is predicted to be signed this summer and on-sight developments are expected to begin in January 2024.Last month, upcoming arenas were put under scrutiny when pressures mounted, encouraging them to invest back into grassroots music spaces – or else not be allowed to open.Launched by the Music Venue Trust, a 2022 annual report laid out the value of the sector and highlighted the danger that the UK economy faced if smaller venues did not receive support from arenas or other high-capacity locations.“I’m putting the music industry on notice: we are over the edge,” Mark Davyd, sharing the report at the Houses Of Parliament. “We’re not near the edge, we’re over the edge and we’re tumbling down.
You need to throw a lifeline down. We can’t pay £79million a year to create the artists that are going to appear on your festival stages.
It’s not possible for us to do that.”He continued: “We have got to have a proper research and development arm in this country that supports new artists, develops their careers and brings them out of this.
That is the responsibility of everyone in this industry, and it simply isn’t good enough to wait for a lone venue operator to take a chance on a new band.”Currently, eight new arenas are being built across the UK, including the aforementioned arena in Cardiff and an upcoming YTL Arena in Bristol..
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