00:00So I'm speaking to you from Loading Bay. It's a brand new venue, art space for theatre, gigs, music, visual art, immersive work.
00:10You name it, this space can actually probably hold it.
00:13It's on three levels and we realised when we were developing the programme that we needed a space that could answer to our programme needs,
00:20but also could become something that would grow the culture and creative sector here in Bradford,
00:25but also become an offer for national theatre, gigs and shows to come to Bradford that haven't had an opportunity to come here before.
00:32We'd love to see this to have a life beyond 2025. For us it's about responding to our need this year,
00:39but we also recognise the need that this responds to for Bradford's creative and cultural sector,
00:45and also nationally for shows to come to tour to Bradford who couldn't come if this venue didn't exist.
00:51We've got projects like Public Interest, which Commonwealth, that will be going live in May.
00:58We've got Frontline by Victor Wederburn, which is a photography show, which is going to go on the first floor.
01:03And Tim Smith has gathered this beautiful, brilliant exhibition about Polish-Ukrainian communities, both here but in Poland and Ukraine as well.
01:11We've got Fantastic Helmet by Dvar Dalipur Theatre Company that's coming here.
01:16Wet Messes show Testo is coming here to Bradford and it's touring from a really successful run at Battersea Arts Centre.
01:23And that's just the flavour of projects that are going to be here.
01:28This venue is running through to the end of this year.
01:32There's so much to come from the rest of the year. I think it feels very much like it's living up to expectation.
01:39It's doing so much more than we could have hoped for, even at this stage.
01:43Our shows are selling out, which is absolutely fantastic.
01:46We've had to put a couple more shows on for events that sold out within minutes.
01:50Wrong Trousers sold out, I think the first one sold out in two days.
01:54The second show sold out within an hour.
01:57So it shows that we have developed a real fan base.
02:00People are interested, people want to be a part of the programme, they want to be a part of the work.
02:06We've just done a call out for Railway Children to have a young people's cast of 15 people.
02:12We've had over 500 people apply.
02:16That in itself just shows from being audiences, participants, engaging with the work.
02:22People are actually wanting to be a part of it.
02:25What this year is doing for Bradford already is raising our aspirations,
02:30helping us as Bradfordians fall back in love with ourselves.
02:33Nationally, it's reframing our story,
02:36demonstrating who we are as a contemporary, modern, young, diverse city of the UK.
02:45So here I am in Bradford's new venue, the Loading Bay, and it is quite an extraordinary space.
02:51I'm in the basement, which is going to be transformed in loads of different ways throughout this year.
02:57It's really important for Bradford to have a space like Loading Bay,
03:00because we've just never had anything of this scale in the centre of town, which is kind of like multi-purpose.
03:06So the room we're in now is like a big basement space, and it can be transformed into lots of different ways.
03:12So Commonwealth are presenting Public Interest, which is a big political theatre piece.
03:17It's about young people's experience of the justice system, and particularly joint enterprise.
03:24The piece itself will have lots of young people from Bradford performing in it.
03:30It's going to have music and be performed by rappers and DJs,
03:34so it's really looking at how young people tell their own story.
03:37We're saying it's part music video, part political theatre, and it's here in May 2025.
03:44So Public Interest is an immersive theatre show, so the audience will be on their feet, action will happen around them,
03:51and the audience will kind of move around the spaces, so we've got a lot of projection, a lot of video, a lot of music.
03:58So it really is an interactive, immersive piece.
04:01I think without the support of Bradford 2025, we wouldn't have ever been able to make anything as ambitious,
04:06and for me it's really important that the young people who are in the show get to be part of something that's very elevated,
04:13and that they see the scale and the ambition of a piece, and also they're all getting paid,
04:20so it allows them to see themselves as professionals, and that the creative sector is a world that they can enter into.
04:27And I don't think that would have been possible without Bradford 2025.
04:30I really hope that the legacy of this building is that we can keep it and keep using it, because it is absolutely extraordinary.
04:36It's got four floors, it's all multi-purpose, and we need something like this in Bradford in the city centre,
04:42because we don't really have anything which is this flexible and allows for such creative ambition.
04:47So I think for Bradford artists, but also for artists visiting Bradford, it's really important,
04:52because we don't have anywhere else to go like this.
04:56Well, I've just visited Loading Bay, the new city centre venue for Bradford 2025,
05:03and when I came here six months ago, it was just this semi-derelict building,
05:09and it's just wonderful to see it transformed into an art centre,
05:15with exhibition space, performance space, event space, amazing.
05:20And this is the kind of place that Bradford city centre has been crying out for, for years.
05:27And yes, you will travel to see something, but if it's right there in the city centre,
05:32it's such a bonus in terms of getting people along.
05:36The exhibition that I'm involved in helping produce here is called Tutytam,
05:44which is Polish and Ukrainian for here and there.
05:47And basically, they're collections of photographs from both Bradford and from different parts of the world
05:54that explain how and why Polish and Ukrainian people have come to settle in this city of ours for the last 80 years.
06:03Well, 40 years ago, when I arrived in Bradford, I spent time at the Ukrainian club on Legrand Lane,
06:09I went to the Polish club on Edmund Street, and I'm still going back,
06:14because those communities have been here for 80 years, and they've got extraordinary stories to tell.
06:22The Poles have been joined by all those Polish people who came over after 2004,
06:28when Poland became part of the European Union.
06:31And obviously, a lot of Ukrainians have arrived recently, fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
06:37And I think those communities are communities that not many people know those extraordinary stories.
06:44So, I think if people do come along, they'll see some great photographs,
06:50but they'll also find out stuff about our city that they never knew before.
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