Bristol’s Aviva Arena Wants to Disrupt the U.K.’s Live Music Scene

Underneath the wings of a luxury Concorde aeroplane, Tom Grennan is belting out his brand of soulful pop to a room of major industry players, politicians and Bristol locals. Signs around a tastefully done-up aircraft hangar tell the English city to get ready for “supersonic” new live arena. How’s that for an opening statement?

On Thursday (Feb. 19), the naming rights to an incoming 20,000-capacity music venue were announced in bombastic fashion. The Aviva Arena, slated to open in 2028, will shake up the U.K.’s music scene after a decades-long wait for live music fans in the southwest of England.

First mooted in 2003, plans for Bristol’s new music venue have had to weather some turbulence. A site in the city centre was initially identified, though these plans were scrapped when the project was considered no longer financially viable. 

In 2019, plans moved to a site in the north of the city: Filton Airfield. Featuring several huge hangars, it was here that the Concorde jet, a luxury commercial airliner that first flew in the 1970s, was built. Considered a feat of British engineering, the jet drastically cut transatlantic travel time and could break the supersonic barrier. They were ultimately discontinued in 2003 due to rising costs and dipping demand.

The Aviva Arena will lean into its heritage and repurpose the existing site, including three huge aircraft hangars which make up one of Europe’s largest free-standing structures. The new venue will be configurable from 4,000 all the way up to its 20,000 maximum and fill a black spot on the U.K. touring map. Global touring acts traditionally skip Bristol due to a lack of large scale venues, with tours opting instead for Birmingham or London. Conversations with a number of large artists to play the venue once it opens are underway.

Handled by YTL Live, the construction will bring a £1bn boost to the local economy and thousands of jobs. A new train station will be built to serve the venue and the surrounding community; 6,500 homes will be built on the entire site, with the music, exhibition and conference space at the heart of it. The government’s chancellor Rachel Reeves hailed the plans and said it would “put the region firmly on the global map for live entertainment.”

Following Grennan’s set, YTL Live chief executive Andrew Billingham and Miles Leonard, an appointee on YTL Live’s advisory board and chairman of Parlophone & Warner Brothers Records U.K. sat down with Billboard U.K. to discuss the new space, competition in the live space and their goal of hosting the BRIT Awards.

What will set Aviva Arena apart from other arenas?

Andrew: There’s a couple of things. It’s the flexibility and scale. We can flex from 4,000 right up to 20,000 that puts us in the top three of UK arena capacities [behind Manchester’s Co-op Live and London’s O2 Arena]. There’s also the location – the west of England reaches 16 million people and that’s about 20% of the UK population that’s starved of a great venue. The final point for us is the experience and that it’s in this location with so much history. We want to make sure the experience is amazing for fans, both in terms of its acoustics and in terms of its food and drink offering, and hospitality, but also for artists as well.

Miles: It’s about the whole development, and with the two areas either side to provide different offerings [conferences and exhibitions]. What we’re doing for the artists also sets us apart, we recognize that we need to develop the backstage areas for them and have a positive experience for them. We want artists coming back. Most arenas are quite dead behind the stage, so we want to make sure the experience is as good for the artists as it is for the fans.

Did you feel like the live music industry in the U.K. was crying out for a venue like this?

Andrew: Absolutely, it’s proven that it’s a supply-led market. Co-op Live opened a couple of years ago [2024] to add another big venue in the Manchester market, and has gone on to achieve some great numbers and success. The west of England in comparison, hasn’t had the opportunity to compete.

Miles: Bristol is so rich in culture with its art, music and sport scenes… we’re not competing with the other major cities in the country, and haven’t done so for a long time on this scale. The music industry is definitely crying out for it, but also so are the people of Bristol and the whole southwest of England. If you live in Devon, Cornwall, Wiltshire and you want to go and see an artist on a global, international scale, you have to go up to The O2 in London or to Birmingham and that’s quite some distance. 

Andrew: We’ve had quite a bit of input from the industry too, particularly in the artist facilities. We had feedback on the dressing rooms, artist lounges, production offices, crew dining, all the way through to the back of house where we can fit 60 lorries. We can turn shows over quite quickly.

Miles: They can’t believe the space and the facilities that we have. We have to future-proof the arena, not just for now but for the next 20 years.

Were there any other arenas, not just in the U.K., that you looked at and took inspiration from

Andrew: Definitely. The Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, for example. It’s built around basketball, but very tech-led. We’re going to have a lot of tap and go concession stands to speed up concession services, and the Intuit Dome was certainly one that was on top of this. Also what the team has done at the Co-op Live is incredible. The acoustics that they have delivered is amazing.

Miles: It’s an era for live music of this scale right now. So to have the Aviva Arena future-proofed with leading audio and tech and making the visual immersive side state of the art, as well as all the food and beverage outside is really important.

The arena experience has changed so much compared to something like The O2 in London which was built in a different era of live music. You have a fresh slate here…

Andrew: It’s a really good point, because for fans, their experience has changed, hasn’t it? The O2, for example, was built around the corporate customer [the venue opened in 2007]. We’re not. We’re built around giving flexibility in terms of experiences for fans of every genre and of every age, and that’s really important. We’ve made sure that the building is flexible enough that we can change with the times.

There’s also an arena being built in Cardiff which is less than an hour drive from here. How do you see that competing with what you’re doing here?

Andrew: I think it’s healthy competition. We know that it’s a supply-led industry. You’ve got an arena in Liverpool [M&S Bank Arena] and that’s the same distance to Manchester which has now got two arenas. Then you go over to Leeds, the same distance from Manchester in the other direction, which has its own arena [First Direct Arena]. The west of England has been starved of venues in comparison. But Cardiff, which is in the southwest of Wales, is a different market and I would like to hope that we’ve got two great markets where and arenas artists want to play both.

How will the venue interact with the grassroots scene? There’s talk of the mandatory ticket levy….

Andrew: We’ve been really clear that this is about supporting grassroots music. Whether it’s through a levy, or whether it’s through supporting artists in terms of building their fan bases and their audiences. We’ve got lots of things to come in the future, but we are absolutely committed to supporting the grassroots. 

Miles: We don’t want to sit apart from that, and we recognize the need for those venues to develop artists, because it’s that journey that brings them here in the arena. You don’t start in the arena, you’ve got to start in those small venues. We want to look at all the ways that we can work together and support each other. That also goes beyond just the artists, but also the people that are working within those venues on the lighting, the sound desk, on the door, promoting, whoever that is. You need to think of the live industry as a whole and not just the artists. It’s very much in our sights to be supporting the industry at all levels.

We’ve seen a lot of music ceremonies move out of London in recent years. Next week, the BRITs will take place at Manchester’s Co-op Live. Is that something you would like to host here at some point? 

Andrew: Yes, 100% We want to showcase Bristol and the west of England, and that’s absolutely a conversation that we will want to have.