“ Newham Council has been incredibly supportive ,” she says . “ The park spans four boroughs , Tower Hamlets , Hackney and Waltham Forest and Newham . It has been great to work with the councils and have an open and transparent conversations when planning new projects and outdoor events .”
Velodrome
“ It will mean a whole new audience and night-time economy coming into the park on top of everything else that we do .”
– Peter Tudor
Stadium action Very few inner-city sites can boast such a remarkable selection of event facilities and QEOP is not limited to the obvious options . Among the less immediately apparent event spaces is the 5,500 capacity Stadium Island , which can be used for outside events and festivals .
London Stadium sits on a manmade island within the park , with a canal around it that is straddled by five bridges . The 20,000m 2 space around the stadium has been used for music and food festival set ups with multiple stages and retail outlets , and mass participation sports events combining brand and experiential activations . Among the events to be staged in the space this year are food events Wing Fest and the London Halal Food Festival .
Williams says that opening the area up to events is a great use of the space : “ It ’ s very evocative of the Games and can be used for indoor and outdoor event elements .”
In an average year , the park and its many venues attracts around 6 million visitors per year , but Tudor says that footfall will be considerably more this year , with the ABBA Arena alone expected to attract a further one million . Once complete , the East Bank facilities are also expected to add a further one million .
Tudor says the East Bank buildings will begin to open over the next couple of years , starting with the University College London student accommodation this year . Once complete , he says the project will have a huge impact on the park : “ It will mean a whole new audience and night-time economy coming into the park on top of everything else that we do .”
There is clearly immense pride among the team about what has been achieved at the park during the past decade , and according to an LLDC survey 80 % of respondents felt the investment was worth it .
“ We ’ ve just got to persuade the other 20 %,” says Tudor . “ I think the more they see the things that are happening here around the park , particularly the East Bank development and the great line up of events we ’ ve got this year , the easier it will be to persuade everybody that staging the Olympics here and the development of the Park ’ s facilities has benefitted everybody who lives here .
“ The London 2012 Olympics was a showcase for the UK events industry , not least with all the hospitality spaces and temporary pavilions that were built . Now we ’ ve got these brilliant buildings in which all sorts of different things happen . We ’ ve got spaces for events for everything from 80,000 people , with the stadium , to 6,000 at the Copper Box , down to 300 at the top of the ArcelorMittal Orbit where we launched a new venue space back in September .
“ The exciting thing for us is seeing how those buildings get used and how they can keep adapting and keep delivering on the promises that the event industry was able to demonstrate way back in 2012 .”
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