Hull Arena coming soon
Since being honoured as City of Culture 2017, Hull has slowly become a more attractive and interesting place to be. New bars and cafes, such as Humber Dock Bar & Grill and Humber Street Distillery Co., have blessed the streets and art exhibitions, food festivals, and events have been popping up all over the place in the last 12 months. The city's newest arrival, opening this summer, is Hull's very own music arena: Hull Venue.
The venue has a capacity of up to 3,500 people and will be open to the public for not just concerts but also conferences, exhibitions and other live shows such as stand-up comedy. Earlier this year, several acts were announced to be performing at the venue, including George Ezra, who's show on the 10th of November sold out on the very same day tickets were released.
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The new area is located on Myton Street, just next door to Princes Quay shopping centre, offering an opportunity for extra parking. Due to its placement in the middle of the city, the arena will be easily accessible by buses, trains and even on foot for those living locally.
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The building itself is owned by Hull City Council, and is described to be "a state-of-the-art, music and events complex", but what do the people of Hull actually think about it?
"Because its a purpose-built arena for music or stage acts, I’m hoping that the acoustics will be better and that we’ll be able to get better acts." Said Gill Hultum, from Welton.
However, after interviewing several locals from Hull and the surrounding areas, it was clear that there were doubts about the new arena. With a capacity of only 3,500, can the Venue provide for the more famous acts it requires to bring people to our city?
Phil Turner, 69 from Hessle, said "I think that unless they get top line acts, the place will be half empty."
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Josh Stones, 21 from Brough, said: "They've built something that we already have, and not necessarily wasted money but it could've been spent more efficiently elsewhere and I think they should've asked the general public what they thought".
While money has been thrown at places like Humber Street and the Old Town, there are still many areas of Hull, which are home to derelict buildings and places that actually need fixing, which prevent the city from looking modern, attractive and enticing - all the things the City of Culture should be.
Also, with the lack of multi-platform advertising for the new arena, the younger generation of the city have been kept in the dark. Despite having both a twitter account and instagram account, The Venue has just not been promoted enough and many teens and twenty-somethings are clueless to when the arena even opens.
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What do you think? Will Hull follow suit of York and Leeds, bringing huge music acts to our doorstep? Or do you think the council should have invested the money in something else? Take the survey below to tell us what you think!