Opened in September 2019, P&J Live replaced the former Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre as the new purpose-built live event venue in the North of Scotland. Managed and operated by ASM Global, the £333million venue boasts world-class conference and event facilities, a 15,000-capacity arena and enviable audiovisual technology, the venue is an incredible asset to the whole region.
Attracting major artists and events to the city, the facility contributes an additional 4.5 million visitors and £63 million net GVA to the Scottish economy.
The venue quickly made history by welcoming 15,000 fans to P&J Live not long after opening in November 2019 for an epic night of entertainment from Gerry Cinnamon. His fans are just something else, with an electric atmosphere and some of the loudest crowds ever heard in Aberdeen. This was surpassed by Lewis Capaldi in January 2023, when it became Scotland’s highest selling indoor show in history.
In December 2019, the venue hosted BBC Sports Personality of the Year, welcoming a sky full of sports stars and celebrities to the city. It was a huge achievement to bid for and win as hosting venue, and with the event being broadcast live on television, it put P&J Live on the map.
Two sold-out Elton John shows in June 2023 saw 21,000 tickets sold, with 55% of these coming from outside Aberdeen City & Shire. Some from as far afield as the USA and New Zealand. With £74.34 the average per person per night on overnight stays in Scotland, £817,750 was pumped into the local economy because of these shows. Adding ticket sales and local visitor spend, the shows contributed well over £1m.
P&J Live will continue to keep up with market trends, identifying what’s new and what opportunities are out there. Still a relatively new venue but there are other newer venues coming on stream and the company needs to keep an eye on the competition. Aberdeen is a small city, so we try and make sure there is a varied calendar of events, with something for everyone. The quality of event is important, so our ability to book A-listers and little surprises matter. At the end of the day, we’re still a growing business, so making sure we’re on trend and providing a good service will keep our development on the right track.
Being part of ASM Global provides the intelligence and information required to benchmark ourselves against other major cities venues, ensuring that what we provide is best in class in the industry across all sectors.
P&J Live is a unique event campus, something for the people of Aberdeen to be proud of. Whenever we bring clients up to Aberdeen to showcase the venue and surrounding area, we know we will win them over, and more often than not, they will return. For us, we want to see support in the hometown venue and for some to realise that not many cities are lucky enough to have a facility such as this.
