Bradford Live's new operator and opening announced

Bradford Live is now due to be up and running in the autumn

A new operator has been found to run the newly-restored music venue Bradford Live, it has been announced.

Bradford Council said Trafalgar Entertainment would take over the management of the building in the autumn.

The former Odeon cinema is council-owned and was supposed to be operated by NEC Group until the latter withdrew from the project in September.

Sir Howard Panter, creative director at Trafalgar Entertainment, said the venue would "host a huge range of shows from the biggest live music events and comedy to large-scale entertainment of all kinds and from some of the world's biggest stars".

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said: "After the challenges of the last 12 months, we can now look forward to seeing this iconic part of Bradford's history open and playing a big part in Bradford's future.

"The venue will be fully open in autumn this year, and playing a part in our UK City of Culture celebrations prior to that as promised."

Events at the 3,800-capacity venue were scheduled for November, but the shows were quietly cancelled and customers were refunded.

Initially forecast to cost between £22m and £25m, the venue has been funded by almost £44m from Bradford Council, with the rest coming from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), the government and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

NEC Group had been announced as the operator as long ago as 2017, but pulled out following a "strategic review of its business", according to a spokesperson.

Trafalgar Entertainment lists 17 venues on its website that are under its management, mostly theatres, cinemas and arts centres in the south of England. It also runs the Theatre Royal Sydney in Australia.

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