As Chair of the Lancashire Music Association, and as a music stakeholder committed to seeing Lancashire’s music sector thrive, I would like to offer some reflections on the future of Preston Guild Hall and the wider question of major music infrastructure in Preston and Lancashire.
The Guild Hall has a significant place in Preston’s cultural history. For decades it hosted major artists, major audiences and major civic moments, and played an important role in the cultural life of the city and county. That heritage matters and should be recognised.
It is also clear from recent public discussion that there remains strong local feeling about the loss of a major venue in Preston, and about the role such a space once played in the city’s identity, visitor economy and wider cultural life.
Read more: Action Records and Preston music legend Gordon Gibson backs city venue petition
However, heritage alone cannot be our strategy for the future.
If Lancashire’s music sector is to thrive more broadly in the years ahead, then some necessary interventions are required. One of those, in my view, is a significant, flexible cultural space in Preston — one designed not around nostalgia, but around what is fit for purpose for the long-term future.
This should not be understood as Preston competing with the rest of the county. The Lancashire Music Association is committed to supporting Lancashire’s music places, people and scenes across the county, and that wider ecology must be recognised and supported.
The Lancashire Music Association has begun gathering evidence and developing a framework to better understand the county’s music infrastructure and wider ecology, and that work continues. The evidence gathered to date is already helping us work towards clearer progression pathways, stronger succession planning, and a more joined-up approach to supporting home-grown talent across Lancashire.
Alongside this, there is increasing value in the role that research, dialogue and partnership can play in supporting more coordinated thinking across the music ecology. Through networks such as the Music Research Group, and through engagement with venues, promoters, artists and wider cultural stakeholders, there is an opportunity to support a more joined-up and future-facing conversation about what Lancashire needs.
The evidence gathered so far, alongside wider stakeholder perspectives, suggests that Lancashire does not lack creativity, talent or ambition, but does face uneven infrastructure across its music ecology. A healthy system requires a ladder of opportunity: grassroots spaces, developmental and incubation spaces, stepping-stone venues, and a larger-scale venue capable of attracting major touring artists and significant cultural events. Without that ladder, progression becomes harder, audience development weakens, and both talent and spending are more likely to flow elsewhere.
In that sense, the question is not simply what can be restored from the past, but what kind of infrastructure Preston and Lancashire now need for the future.
My view is that Preston should be ambitious. Rather than thinking only in terms of repair, this is an opportunity to deliver a new or renewed significant cultural space that meets contemporary touring requirements, supports audience development, and serves the wider needs of Lancashire’s music ecology over the long term.
Clearly, there will be significant cost involved in whatever happens next, and that has to be acknowledged honestly. But that is precisely why the decision should be approached in terms of long-term value and long-term need. If we are serious about building for the future, then we have to proceed accordingly. The question is not simply what costs least in the short term, but what will leave Preston and Lancashire with infrastructure that is fit for purpose, resilient, ambitious and capable of delivering cultural, social and economic benefit over time.
Examples such as The Piece Hall in Halifax suggest that proximity to major metropolitan centres does not automatically rule out the success of significant cultural infrastructure at the right scale and with the right identity.
Preston does not need to outsize the biggest city-region venues; it needs a distinctive, flexible and well-positioned cultural space that can succeed at the right scale for Lancashire.
Done properly, such a space should strengthen Lancashire’s wider musical ecology. The real competitive pressure is not within the county itself, but in the continued pull of major metropolitan centres, which attract audiences, artists and leisure spending away from Lancashire. A strong major cultural space in Preston should therefore be understood as a county-serving intervention that helps retain more cultural and economic value within Lancashire, while complementing the county’s wider cultural and musical offer.
A future space should also be designed with flexibility in mind. A modular model, with adaptable spaces of different scales, would allow it to support multiple functions: major touring shows, community use, talent development, promoter incubation, and the kinds of homecoming moments that matter when Lancashire artists return after achieving national or international success. In that respect, this is not simply about replacing a building. It is about putting in place a more future-facing piece of cultural infrastructure.
There is also a wider opportunity here. A major flexible cultural space in Preston can contribute to the visitor economy, support hospitality and the night-time economy, encourage people to stay longer in the city and county, and create stronger links to Lancashire’s wider cultural and leisure offer. Positioned correctly, it can become a symbol of confidence and ambition, while also improving the functionality of the wider county ecosystem rather than drawing against it. It can act as a catalyst for cultural and economic growth, helping to ensure that more people choose music and culture within Lancashire, rather than habitually leaving the county in search of larger-scale experiences.
Music should also be understood as more than entertainment alone. It is a cultural and economic engine, and for many young people across Lancashire it represents a potential career direction — whether as artists, producers, promoters, technicians, educators, managers, marketers or entrepreneurs. If we want the next generation to see a future for themselves in music within this county, then we need infrastructure that reflects that ambition and gives them something real to grow into.
What matters now is turning aspiration into something deliverable. The question is not only whether Preston should have a significant cultural space again, but how that can be achieved in a way that is sustainable, future-facing and of genuine long-term benefit to the city and county. That will require serious thinking about resources, delivery models, partnership and long-term viability. Those challenges are exactly why this moment should be approached strategically.
For those reasons, I support the call for Preston to regain a significant cultural space. The key now is to ensure that whatever comes next is ambitious, future-facing and designed to meet long-term cultural and economic needs, while contributing positively to Lancashire’s wider music ecology.
These are my current reflections as Chair of the Lancashire Music Association, informed by sector knowledge, ongoing discussions, and a long-standing interest in the future of Lancashire’s music infrastructure. We will also use the forthcoming Lancashire Music Summit at 53 Degrees to gather wider perspectives from members and other stakeholders as that work develops.
This is a guest post from Tony Rigg who is Chair, Lancashire Music Association, Night Time Economy Ambassador for Lancashire (NTIA), Music Industry Advisor and also a lecturer at the school of arts and media at the University of Lancashire in Preston
Read more: See all our coverage of our call for the city to have a major venue again
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