Wales's Principal Concert Venue to Close?

[amateur51]

Now, now, Ams let's not get parochial!! Colled y De yw buddugoliaeth y Gogledd!!!

If only

[Honoured Guest]

As is often the way, detailed scrutiny of what the council has put out (SLC 1, 2, 3 and 46) shows it to seem inconsistent with initial reporting. For a start, unless I'm being particularly thick today, the SLC46 proposal "only" appears to be aiming to save £530k out of the £2M figure the BBC give for the total cost to the council of St David's and the New Theatre.

About as clear as mud, as usual. It's understandable that the council has to do something. There's a hole in the budget so mahoosive you could easily get the remuneration Goodway obtained during his time as Britain's most highly paid council leader (with sundry associated controversies, questions in parliament etc) into it .

Today's Western Mail story is a little clearer, spelling out the point you noticed that the Budget Saving Proposal is to reduce by £530,000 the £2million annual subsidy to St David's Hall (£1.2M) and New Theatre (£0.8M). http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wa...ng-cut-6656073

As was established yesterday, the budget saving proposal involves finding an independent management company to take over these venues from Cardiff Council. The talk of closure is speculative on the fear that no such management company might be found for St David's Hall.

The orchestral concerts at St David's Hall would be unsatisfactory in any other Cardiff venue, but most of the rest of their programme could be presented elsewhere in Cardiff. However, the current mixed programme keeps the Hall very busy for most of the year and the rich mix of various music genres, comedy, ballet, dance and other entertainment must encourage audiences to cross over to a range of events.

[Richard Tarleton]

The talk of closure is speculative on the fear that no such management company might be found for St David's Hall.

The orchestral concerts at St David's Hall would be unsatisfactory in any other Cardiff venue, but most of the rest of their programme could be presented elsewhere in Cardiff. However, the current mixed programme keeps the Hall very busy for most of the year and the rich mix of various music genres, comedy, ballet, dance and other entertainment must encourage audiences to cross over to a range of events.

Let's hope new management is found. Even I have "crossed over" as a result of picking up leaflets in the foyer - some great non-classical shows. We're pretty selective given the distance involved but Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the great Tom Paxton stick in the mind. Paxton I hadn't seen for 20 years - marvellous to hear the best part of 2000 people singing along to "Last Thing On My Mind" and "Ramblin' Boy", TP quite moved by it.