While the rest of the South-West of England is mired by closures of live music venues, Bristol still stands as a bastion of the arts and culture. One of the UK’s most unique and vibrant cities, it is home to vast amounts of concerts, plays, comedy shows and events, the largest hub for fans from around Western England and Wales. After plans were approved in 2020, developer YTL Live have revealed new updates on their proposed 20,000 capacity indoor arena – the first of its kind outside London, Birmingham or Manchester. Now formally named the Aviva Arena, it aims to transform the Filton area of Bristol into a one-of-a-kind culture hub.
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According to BristolLive, demolition work in the area had completed in January, paving the way for the new construction in the Brabazon Hangars, the site in Filton Airfield where supersonic airliner Concorde was developed in the 50s and 60s. They hosted a party to break the news of the new name on Thursday the 19th of February, held at Aerospace Bristol. Acclaimed singer-songwriter Tom Grennan ripped through a 6-song performance with the last Concorde to take to the skies suspended above him.
During the exhibition, CGI images of the prospective Aviva Arena were shown to the audience, with Grennan remarking “I’ve been coming to Bristol for 10 years on tour, traveling, and it’s such a great place for music, so bringing something like this here is going to change the whole city. And it’s going to be amazing.” The new name is a result of a multi-million pound partnership with British insurance firm Aviva, who also hold naming rights with Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, home to their national rugby union team. Aviva Group CEO Dame Amanda Blanc said “Bristol is an important city for Aviva, and we are proud to back this new world-class arena which will have such a positive community impact. Aviva Arena will further strengthen Bristol’s position as one of Europe’s great creative cities and become a landmark destination for the South West of England.”
The project is set to be enormous, opening 2000 new jobs during construction with 500 more when the facilities are operational, and setting out to meet a deadline of opening by late 2028. In addition to the Aviva Arena, which will occupy one of the Brabazon Hangar units, they intend to build a conference space and 6,500 new houses. Transport links to the area are being established, with a new North Filton train station due to open in the Autumn this year. Currently YTL forecast that the arena will bring 120 events a year, with excess of 1.4 million attendants, earning the city’s economy over £1 billion in its first 10 years.
The Aviva Arena’s ambitions stretch far beyond Bristol, where its surrounding venues are lacking in one way or another. Their largest stadium, Ashton Gate, boasts a capacity of 32,000 for their summer shows, but is only available when football and rugby have wrapped for the season. The city’s O2 Academy only holds 1,600, and nearby in Cardiff, the Utilita Indoor Arena can host just 7,500. The Aviva Arena’s 20,000 tops Birmingham’s max of around 15,000, matches London’s O2 Arena, and only falls short of Manchester’s Co-op Live and Manchester Arena, both of which allow over 23,000.
With the long wait until its 2028 opening ahead, you can find more about this exciting project on the Aviva Arena website here.
