News / Ashton Gate
Five major acts coming to Ashton Gate in 2019
Five large music concerts will be taking place at Ashton Gate Stadium next year.
Rock legend Rod Stewart and one of the world’s biggest boy bands, Take That, have already announced they will be playing at the stadium in 2019.
Sir Rod will be performing on Wednesday, May 22, while the 90s heartthrobs will be on stage the following week on Tuesday, May 28, accompanied by Rick Astley.
is needed now More than ever
Take That have announced they are coming to Bristol as part of their 30th greatest hits anniversary tour
But during a licence committee meeting at Bristol City Council on Thursday, representatives from Ashton Gate Limited announced three other music events of the same scale are planned next summer.
One of these acts is likely to be Muse, as the Devon-based band recently announced they will play Bristol as part of their Simulation tour. The other two remain a mystery – at least for now.
Muse have confirmed they will play Bristol – but not where
Ashton Gate Limited was granted a licence allowing it to host five “large scale concerts” in the stadium bowl per year.
The licensing panel were told all these events would take place between a three to four week period in May and June. This is to coincide with the rugby and football seasons.
Take That and Rod Stewart are up first – with events also planned for June 5, 10 and 15.
The licence also grants Ashton Gate Ltd permission to host a similar number of outdoor concert events, expected to take place in the stadium car park.
But these events do not have to take place in the same tight time-frame and it is unclear who might be performing in these slots.
The licence agreed on Thursday also insists that any activities taking place outside the stadium – whether that is live music or alcohol – must stop at 11pm.
Speaking on behalf of Ashton Gate Stadium Ltd, Ewan McGregor, said that the 11pm licence would also be in force indoors on rugby match days.
Ashton Gate Stadium is home to both Bristol City football club and Bristol Bears rugby club.
McGregor told the licensing panel that the company had requested an extra half hour on the alcohol licence for rugby match days because Bristol Bears were now in the Premiership and televised matches can start later in the day.
Part of the stadium does still have an alcohol licence until 2am Monday to Sunday – but this permission is limited to private events only in the Heineken Lounge, Lansdown Suite, South and West Concourses and Sports Bar.
Concerns raised about the licence during the hearing related mainly to noise during the music concerts as well as traffic and transport issues.
Dave Storr, head of safety and security for the company, said the company was in talks with nearby car park owners in order to establish a park and ride system during those events.
He told the committee that for smaller events minibuses would be used, but for the sell-out large concerts he would be looking into single and double-decker buses to transport people to and from the stadium.
Paula O’Rourke, a Green councillor for Clifton who was on the committee and also lives nearby Ashton Gate Stadium, said there were real concerns among residents about the music events.
“The cluster of five large-scale music events, over a three week period during the hottest days of the year, does not sit right with me,” she said.
“During that period people will want to sit in their gardens and enjoy the sunshine, but because of the noise from the gigs they may not even be able to open their windows.
“Residents will be up in arms about this. Five major concerts with a limit of 75 decibels. That’s a lot of noise in three weeks.”
Mark Curtis, from the council’s pollution control team, said he had received just one or two complaints about noise from Ashton Gate over the years – “and not for a few years”.
Although the committee granted the licence, O’Rourke told the applicants it had not been a unanimous decision.
Richard Eddy, a Conservative councillor for Bishopsworth who was chairing the meeting, said he felt Ashton Gate Ltd had made real efforts to take residents feelings into consideration.
In an ironic twist, images of Take That were used in the proposed visuals for the now-scrapped Bristol Arena on Temple Island
Kate Wilson is a local democracy reporter for Bristol.
Read more: Ambitious expansion plans revealed for Ashton Gate stadium
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