Happy Hour again?

Good afternoon, 

Sorry we haven't been in touch recently, a few things to bring you up to speed with on the campaign for the city to have a major venue again. We thought it was a good time to write given the response this week to 53 Degrees booking Paul Heaton, the first gig in the main venue since it began operating again last year. Two shows sold out in a matter of minutes. Luke's been to chat to the team behind the venue about what this might mean for some more established acts playing in Preston again.

The Guild Hall itself remains in limbo, with letters from Preston BID and the petition itself not received a direct response from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. They said: “Arts Council England is the public body responsible for arts venues and it is absolutely right that they are the first point of contact when seeking support.

“We are committed to supporting cultural venues and we are ensuring that theatres are able to thrive across the country through our £425m Creative Foundations Fund, which will support approximately 300 capital projects in arts venues [nationwide], as part of the £1.5bn Arts Everywhere Fund.

“This is in addition to a five percent uplift this financial year for National Portfolio Organisations, which will help deliver high quality arts and cultural activity in every region of the country.”

Thanks to the ever excellent Paul Faulkner who getting an actual response. That story bizarrely drew an outburst from the council - with the council leader Matthew Brown taking a very public swipe at 'the local press' for coverage of the future of the venue and former deputy leader Martyn Rawlinson saying the petition, and coverage, is 'damaging this cause'. It's been one of the biggest stories in the city, since approx 2013 when the council first began to look at offloading the venue - we won't apologise for the intensive coverage of the future of the city's main public venue.

The council is currently undertaking feasibility studies and said in March 2026 it would be coming back within the next 12 months to make a decision, with the aim of ensuring there's a major venue by the time of the next Preston Guild (which is 2032) or sooner. We all look forward to hearing it and the nearly 3,500 signatures show there's an expectation and continued focus from many interested Prestonians in what is decided.

There's plenty of live music and life in the city's events scene in the meantime though, we caught up with The Ferret about their 20 years of operating and Rory at Preston Pulse has a great chat with an up and coming Preston band who are taking TikTok by storm. 

Sadly there have been visits to the Guild Hall made recently, mainly by urban explorer influencers seeking a TikTok hit - we reported on the increased security being put in place at the building. 

Please keep sharing the petition with those you think should be signing it - and we'll leave you to digest the comments of the council leader and others.

Thanks again for signing and for your support.

Ed, Kate, Luke and all at Team BP