Newcastle's Utilita Arena starts "really cool" £1.75m renovation process
Newcastle’s Utilita Arena is preparing for a huge renovation programme which will be seen by both fans and artists.
The 11,000 capacity venue will celebrate its 30th birthday in 2025 and will celebrate with a huge renovation process which will see imporvements to both gig goers and the performing experience.
The £1.75m investment will see improvements backstage as well as changes to toilets as well as food and beverage stalls across the site.
“We’ve been putting our plans together for a couple of years” explained Carole James, General Manager of the arena.
“But in real terms, it’s been [organised] in about a year. We are doing all our changes around our show schedule so we don’t impact bringing events to the North East.
“While the changes you’ll see are big and impactful, they are coming gradually so we dont’ impact the shows that are here and at this time of year there’s so much coming in.”
Talking about the improvements being made to the venue, Caroline James added: “We’ve completely revamped all of the artist and back of house area to encourage bigger artists to come and give them a nice space to be.
“We’ve also renovated all the toilets across the building which needed to be done. We still had the orinal toilets.
“We’ve also uplifted our suite level so it’s a true VIP experience. We’ve already done so much it’s crazy.
“We’re also going to be uplisting our food and beverage for front of house as well. We’re moving away from what we’ve been doing to some really exciting food concepts.”
Improving the backstage area is a major part of the work, with the team behind the arena hoping it will encourage more high profile artists to hit the North East during national and international tours.
“We have a fantastic central programming team who work really ahrd” explained James.
“We've got Sam Fender obviously coming back home and at the end of the year and next year is just shaping up to be amazing with Kylie and Ollie Murs. We've got Les Mis, we've got darts. They’re doing a great job of getting those tours to the city.”