I recently attended a talk on The Importance of the Creative Sector in Placemaking. One of the speakers that day was Shain Shapiro who wrote a book on the importance of including the creative sector in decisions made by local councils on building regulations, licences and many more topics that seem completely unrelated to the arts. He highlights how they are all very much interlinked, the book gives a great insight into what makes a city economically successful, and what makes people move to it as well as away from it. One of the terms that makes many returns is ‘Music City’, and just recently I read about Sunderland’s plea to become one. 

Sunderland Music City might sound strange to some ears, if in the north east, then why not Newcastle? To me, it makes a lot of sense. The creative scene within Sunderland seems much more compact, which also makes it more tight-knit, there is more collaboration, there seems to be less bad blood and competition, because those within the creative scene in Sunderland understand the importance of supporting one another, while in Newcastle there is always another ‘clique’ to join. If that is good or bad is not up to me to decide, although I know what I personally prefer. Either way, I thought that now would be the right time to highlight some of Sunderland’s incredible creative spaces. 

Independent, The Fire Station, and The Peacock are undeniably influential venues that have paved the way for many artists to come to the city, cafe and live venue Pop Recs might be less obvious, but its 200 cap events space has a fantastic and unique feel that after having set foot in the building just once, never left me. There’s The Ship Isis, Otto and The Bunker, smaller spaces for the emerging artists, and NAME Sunderland, a breeding ground for those eager to learn, grow and develop into artists with experiences within all assets of the music industry. Sunderland University houses the radio studio of Spark Sunderland who are incredible at challenging the north east scene, and Abject Gallery which is managed by Breeze Creatives, is an open space for creatives within the arts. 

Festivals and live events taking place in Sunderland include inner-city festival Waves, Kubix and Monument Festival, all three managing to bring big names such as Everything Everything and The Kooks to the north east. Aside from that there is the team at We Make Culture who bring creatives together by supporting their development, and enhancing creative confidence and wellbeing. All in all, Sunderland has a lot going for it, and hopefully their aim to join the Music Cities Network will be successful!