Packed diary for our vibrant city and its people in the next few years
Newcastle is an ever changing city which attracts top events. As the success of the Magic Weekend has shown for the last three years, the city does not struggle to host big crowds, with thousands of rugby league fans coming to Tyneside and enjoying themse
SO what is there to look forward to in Newcastle and nearby over the next few years?
The Magic Weekend may not be coming back, with the Superleague yet to confirm which city is hosting the festival in 2018 – but the other rugby code’s showpiece is touching down in Tyneside.
RUGBY FINALS
Rugby union’s equivalent of the Champions League and Europa League finals are BOTH being held at St James’ Park in 2019.
St James’ Park has hosted Superleague rugby, the Rugby World Cup and Olympic football. In 2019, Europe’s best rugby union clubs will fight out for the continent’s most prestigious honours.
Newcastle United’s 52,000-seater stadium hosts the European Champions Cup final. If you’re not initiated with rugby, that’s essentially the equivalent of football’s Champions League final. The cup is entered by the top club sides from the countries which compete in the Six Nations.
In addition, St James’ will host rugby’s Challenge Cup, which is the second-tier European competition. It features clubs from the Six Nations’ along with qualifiers from elsewhere in Europe.
If that’s not enough, the Continental Shield is held at Kingston Park over the same weekend. That’s the competition where teams from European nations which are not in the Six Nations play in to qualify for the Challenge Cup – along with some Italian sides. Bars, take note. You’re going to do a roaring trade. The matches will be played on the weekend of May 10/11, 2019.
GREAT EXHIBITION OF THE NORTH
Newcastle and Gateshead will host an
10-week celebration of the North of England in summer 2018.
The exhibition, which opens on June 22, 2018, will feature events and installations boasting about the north’s innovation and creativity.
Billed as a “game-changing” moment for the region, it is set to be England’s biggest event of 2018, according to the organisers.
A programme of activities across Tyneside, a business expo and three heritage walking trails will be bookended by “spectacular” opening and closing ceremonies.
NEW METRO TRAINS AND WIFI
Long-awaited new Metro trains are set to be on the Tyne and Wear tracks after 2021.
Hopefully, this means we will get to ride them for the first time in four years.
Nexus says its initial aim is to get these on the tracks in the “early 2020s”.
In a consultation, passengers indicated they’d like to see linear seating, alongside the carriage walls, as you get on new London Underground trains. This allows for more space for standing passengers when services are busy.
Nexus will discuss its £540m business case in its bid to secure funding from the Department for Transport
In addition, Nexus hopes to roll out wifi on the Tyne Wear Metro over the next couple of years. Wifi and 4G/5G connectivity are being looked at and Nexus is in discussion with the telecoms industry to improve on board connectivity.
A Nexus communications officer told ChronicleLive: “This will be next year at the earliest.”
SEE NEWCASTLE IN A HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER
If you were walking through Newcastle city centre in September you may have bumped into some Hollywood stars, or seen a luxury car chase past the Theatre Royal.
Mark Wahlberg and co were in the Toon filming scenes for Transformers: The Last Knight. In the film, Newcastle posed as London for some high-octane action scenes. Alnwick Castle was used too.
The film is released on Friday, June 23.
A REVITALISED BIGG MARKET
By the end of this year, NE1 hopes to have completed a project to redesign the Bigg Market’s public space into a four-level split terrace. This, the business improvement district hopes, will encourage more people to dwell and spend time there. Eventually, there is an aim to put the market back in the Bigg Market, and make the street a viable alternative to the Monument area for hosting temporary street stalls. “It’s a big project,” regeneration manager Gareth told ChronicleLive earlier this year. “We want people to think it’s their space.” NE1 says adding street furniture like portable plastic chairs to the Quayside has been a success, and it wants to repeat the trick in Newcastle’s famous street. The next stage of the regeneration will see buildings restored, with grants available to landowners. There are also plans to upgrade the signage on the street’s businesses to give it a more uniform and upmarket look.