McGee says that he hopes to maintain much of the line-up for the rescheduled dates and is looking to build the festival brand with events elsewhere , with one in Scotland in the pipeline .
McGee , who admits to being a big Slade fan , says , “ It ’ s a good line-up . Many of the acts are managed by Creation . I expect a few acts may pull out but it ’ s looking pretty solid for next year .”
West Park will also be the home of the start and finish of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games cycling
Matt Kidson Alan McGee
time trial on 4 August , with around 90 competitors expected to take part across both the men ’ s and women ’ s events .
Wolverhampton has strong links to road cycling , with the first mass start cycling road race being held there in 1942 and leading riders such as Hugh Porter and Percy Stallard coming from the city . More recently , Andy Tennant , who was born in Wolverhampton and still lives in the city , won silver in the Team Pursuit for Team England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow .
Matt Kidson , director of Sport for Birmingham 2022 , says the time trial routes will be around 40km in
Darrell Martin
The 3,000-capacity Civic Hall
Ross Cook length and the events will attract many thousands of fans . As a whole , organisers expect the entire Games to boost the regional economy by more than £ 1bn .
Asked why West Park was chosen , Kidson says , “ It is a beautiful venue , it will be a great opportunity for Wolverhampton to show it off . It ticks all the boxes for us from an operational point of view ; as well as the athletes , we will have a broadcast compound there , spectator areas and concessions – there was a certain minimum footprint we needed and West Park absolutely hit that spot for us .
“ The location was key in that we want to attract as many people to the event as possible and the parking and public transport facilities are great . As well as attracting a huge audience to the event itself , it will be broadcast to millions of spectators around the world so we can really help get Wolverhampton firmly on the map .”
While there remains some uncertainty around what is achievable in terms of audience size , the council is kicking off its events programme this year with the Relight Festival – a big top event at West Park in August .
“ The big top facility in West Park will give us a capacity of up to 2,000 people , or 500 depending on restrictions ,” says Cook . “ We will use it to stage a mix of family events as well as a comedy club .”
Darrell Martin , director and booker at Just the Tonic , who has secured Jason Manford and Ed Byrne at Bilston Town Hall this year , is overseeing the comedy line-up for the Relight project .
He says , “ I think it is brilliant Wolverhampton Council is being so proactive . There is a really positive spirit around this project coming out of a miserable time . I ’ ve been doing events in other places around the country for years , but nowhere have I seen such a proactive and positive push from the council .”
17