Tropicana Councillors weigh up Live Nation deal

IT was hailed as an opportunity for major regeneration, so why have councillors got cold feet about a 'game-changing' plan for Weston-super-Mare? John Wimperis explores the pros and cons of what has been dubbed Tropicana's "last chance"...

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People queue to enter Banksy's Dismaland at the Tropicana in 2016

(Pic: Nicholas Hayman/SWNS)

PLANS to bring the world's largest entertainment company to Weston-super-Mare to turn a local landmark into a “major music venue” are currently up in the air.

North Somerset Council announced in April that Live Nation was ready to take over the Tropicana to run the former lido as a 10,000-person arena. It would make the seaside town home to one of the largest permanent music venues in the South West.

But the council meeting on April 21 which had been due to sign off on the lease instead turned into a major row and ended up being adjourned. Council officers will now be attempting to renegotiate the lease with Live Nation, as much as they can, and bring it before councillors again when they meet next on May 12.

Councillors have been warned that this could be the last chance for the iconic Tropicana.

Spending summer days at the Tropicana is a formative childhood memory for many Westonians.

Built on Weston-super-Mare’s beach in the 1930s, it closed as a pool in the 2000s and was almost demolished, but the move was blocked by Tory housing minister Eric Pickles. In 2015, Bristol street artist Banksy who used to swim at the Tropicana as a child, used it to house his Dismaland bemusement park in 2015.

It was the start of a new chapter for the Tropicana. Since then, North Somerset Council has run the Tropicana as an events space for hire but the building never covered its costs and was in dire need of repair. In 2023, North Somerset Council won Levelling Up funding from the Government to turn it into a major “nationally significant” venue.