Venue Cymru Arena

[Fester]

The theatre at Venue Cymru continues to deliver a quality offering.

Tonight The Festers went to see The King and I.

It was a superb production, and lavishly done.
From the orchestra and supporting actors to the dancers and child actors it was a very well done indeed.
The leading lady and the guy who played the King were outstanding, and very faithful to the original Rodgers and Hammerstein production we all know.
Bravo!

It was only about 75% full, and the show is on until Saturday night, with a couple of matinee performances thrown in.
If you like good theatre try and get there, I think you will be delighted.

We went on Tuesday evening and took advantage of the 2 for 1 offer.

I would say the theatre was 95% full.

Hmmm, I was not aware of such an offer.... that would have saved us £30.

[DaveR]

They shouldn't need to discount such a supposedly great show, surely?

[Fester]

You wouldn't think so.. but it might have been the matinee performance?

Anyhow, it seems like I missed out.   But it was well worth the full price to be fair.

[Bri Roberts]

Fester, you must have the latest Winter/Spring 2012 brochure to have seen the advert about the Valentine's Day dinner.

If you turn over the page then there are details of the Premier Card right there.

It is only £25 and you will get 10% off the price of most shows for usually up to four tickets.

If you are interested, the next 2 for 1 is on Monday, 18 February for Yes, Prime Minister.

BTW, I believe Venue Cymru are to take over the running of the restaurant from the present concessionaires. 

Perhaps, it was something you said.   

[TheMedz]

First time into the arena tonight, to see the Kaiser Chiefs.

Positives. Very impressed by the arena and the atmosphere in there tonight(I don't know if that makes me easily pleased!) and even more impressed with the band. Absolutely Brilliant.

Negatives. The drunken/medicated idiot in front of me for the first 10 minutes (before we moved) of the gig who thought he was BEZ from Happy Mondays and also threw two full glasses of beer onto the stage hitting the drummer from the first support and the bass guitarist from the second.

[Fester]

I honestly forgot that The Kaiser Chiefs were on tonight.

They are most likely the biggest band who have been to The Arena in many years...
The Chiefs are renowned as a rocking, raucous band... I would have expected to be buffetted and barged into all night. (and got drunk accordingly to avoid getting annoyed by it)

Medz, was it a seated gig then?  You say there was a numpty in front of you.
If it was all standing, (as it usually is in the arena), then it would be quite easy to side-step and and view from elsewhere.
What were the circumstances?

I PREDICT A RIOT.............I PREDICT A RIOT!

[TheMedz]

No it was a standing gig and as you say you would have thought it would be easy to move away from any "numpty". Initially no matter where we moved this guy and his mates seemed to be there. It was the beer throwing at the support acts that particularly p****d me off. As I said after 10 minutes into their act we just upped  and moved away to the other side of the arena without any further problem. It's the third time we've seen the Kaisers in similar stand up venues and they were better than ever. A really good mix of new and old stuff. Not surprisingly "I predict a riot" and "Oh my God I can't believe it" stole the show.

[Bri Roberts]

Was there any security in attendance or just the usual volunteer stewards?

Negatives. The drunken/medicated idiot in front of me for the first 10 minutes (before we moved) of the gig who thought he was BEZ from Happy Mondays and also threw two full glasses of beer onto the stage hitting the drummer from the first support and the bass guitarist from the second.

[DaveR]

The Promoter would have been required to provide full security as part of their contract to hire the VC Arena.

[wrex]

Oh well that;s it now,Kaiser chiefs have been ,everybody who went that i have spoken to said it was brilliant ,yet there are no gigs booked for the arena,last year i know Will Young played the Arena,Motorhead and may be a couple of others which lets be honest that is pathetic.I know you can;t force groups and singers to to come to the Arena but i think the Venue Cymru management are not pulling their weight,the town needs to keep some local youngsters from leaving Llandudno for good and putting more gigs on would be a start

[Fester]

Actually Wrex, Motorhead came to the arena in 2010,  they did not want to make the venue a part of their tour lat year.
Unhappy with the acoustics, which is something many bands have said.

Very sad.   Doesn't time fly!

[wrex]

So that makes just 2 gigs in the whole year, somebody needs to come out and explain to the taxpayers what the Arena is being used for ,who promotes it and how much it is costing US while it sits there every night empty.

[Bri Roberts]

wrex, you would be surprised to find how often the Arena is used for events other than gigs.

Over the past 12 months, we have attended the qualifying rounds of the North Wales Choral Festival and I also attended the Daily Post Achievement Wales Business Awards, which was a black tie dinner.

Another event was a free Olympic Games 2012 event that was not advertised very well so was poorly supported on the day I went along.

[dwsi]

I spoke to someone I know in the Galeri in Caernarfon about the arena. He said the arena was designed as a multi-purpose venue and this set-up is well known as having 'dead' acoustics. There are a lot of similar venues of all sizes in the UK with same problem.

[wrex]

Yes Bri i know theyu have snooker,youth groups doing their shows but that is still only once a week if that ,when it should also be bringing in thousands of people at least once a week who may stay overnight,drink in the pubs,shop,eat