The arduous project has not only tested the ability of construction teams, but also the purse strings at Bristol City Council with the total cost now at £132 million. Yet any fears the city’s public will not return to the venue, formerly known as Colston Hall, appear to be being eased as the venue hit 1 million pound in tickets sales ahead of its reopening.
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00:00 Love the Old Hall as I did. It was a little bit shabby to be honest and the backstage
00:09 facilities were not great. So we were never able to get those really big names. You know
00:16 those artists that would normally do an arena but sometimes like to do consoles, those shows
00:22 never came our way just because you know the facilities here were such that we couldn't
00:27 you know they wouldn't want to play here. But now we've got this incredible facility,
00:31 you know one of the best in the UK. I promise you you'll see some of those big names in
00:37 the not too distant future.
00:39 The arduous project has not only tested the ability of construction teams but also the
00:45 purse strings of Bristol City Council with the total cost now at £132m. Yet any fears
00:51 the city's public will not return to the venue formerly known as Colston Hall appear to be
00:56 eased as the venue hit a million pounds in ticket sales ahead of its reopening.
01:02 So we closed in 2018 to redevelop and it's taken us a bit longer than we had expected.
01:09 There was lots of stuff that we found that we didn't know was there. Old Elizabethan
01:13 wells, supporting walls that we thought were filled in and they weren't. And we felt it
01:20 really keenly that Bristol hasn't had their main music venue for five whole years. They've
01:25 been having to travel to Bath or Birmingham or Cardiff. So we're really happy that music
01:31 lovers in Bristol have access to their concert hall again. We've got a packed programme going
01:35 forward and people are coming through the doors which is amazing.
01:40 The venue will see acts such as Orchestral Season, Ricky Gervais and Jools Holland. But
01:45 what else can we expect? Let's find out.
01:49 It's a really broad church in terms of the programme. So we do everything from, you know,
01:55 we've got Beethoven to brass bands, we've got, you know, jazz, electronic music. We've
02:01 got all of our new spaces back. So we've got the big name artists in the main hall. We've
02:08 got our sort of art centre type programme in the lantern. We've got our new sort of
02:11 club space in the cellars. So there is something for everybody.
02:16 We knew that the name Colston Hall was putting people off from attending and we did a huge
02:21 process of consultation, talking to our audiences, thinking about what the organisation meant
02:26 to them and what the name could be. And the name Bristol Beacon for us really talks about
02:32 a welcome. It talks about warmth. It talks about light. It talks about us being a beacon
02:36 for music in Bristol, a space where people can come and feel welcome and be welcomed.
02:41 And we hope that that vibe carries across into the new venue too.
02:45 Only time will tell if the £132m renovation of the project was worth it for Bristolians
02:51 and those visiting the city. But for now, the venue's events are well underway to show
02:57 off their five-year development project.
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