North Somerset councillors have voted to offer Live Nation a 25-year lease on Weston-super-Mare’s Tropicana, clearing the way for a year-round event space that could hold up to 10,000 people.
The decision on Tuesday gives the global entertainment company the chance to turn the abandoned seafront site into a major venue after years of decay. The Tropicana opened in 1937 as an art deco lido, closed in 2000 and then sat as a hollowed-out shell for 15 years before the latest revival plan took shape.
The scale of the bet is large. Live Nation runs about 20 UK music festivals, including Reading, Leeds, Isle of Wight and Download, and also operates the O2 Academy venues and the Ticketmaster brand. It has already helped develop a live music programme at Dreamland in Margate, a project the company says brought fresh energy to that resort and drew more businesses into the area.
On Wednesday, Mike Bell said the town needed the same sort of jolt. Speaking from inside the Tropicana, the North Somerset council leader said Weston-super-Mare had been “stuck in a little bit of a cycle of decline” and that businesses were struggling on the high street. He said the town needed “some catalytic investment” to increase visitor numbers and help support the local economy.
Live Nation’s case is built on that argument. Eddie Kemsley said the Dreamland project in Margate “really put it back on the map” and added that over the last 10 years more hotels and restaurants had opened there, with a stronger night-time economy following behind. He said Weston-super-Mare could look to that example and ask how some of it could be used here.
The Tropicana is already woven into the town’s recent story. In 2015, Banksy transformed the derelict site into Dismaland, a temporary attraction that reportedly gave the local economy a £20m boost and briefly turned the abandoned lido into a national talking point. The new lease plan now aims to make that sort of attention last longer than a few weeks.
The redevelopment also sits alongside other civic projects, including an upgrade to the nearly 100-year-old marine lake and renovations to the Grade II* listed Birnbeck Pier. Bell has said the town faces deep-rooted health and economic problems, with five areas among the most deprived 5% in England and a high proportion of residents living with long-term health conditions.
Rose Swann, who backed the plan, said the town needed the project, saying Weston-super-Mare really needs something like this. The question now is not whether the Tropicana can attract attention. It already has. The test is whether a 25-year lease and a 10,000-capacity venue can turn a long-neglected shell into the kind of steady business that keeps people on the seafront after the headlines fade.
