The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed January seems pretty ‘dry’ in terms of our entertainment offerings at both the Villa Marina & Gaiety Theatre… but don’t worry, this isn’t our take on ‘Dry January’, in fact, January is one of the busiest times here at VillaGaiety as our beautiful buildings get some much needed TLC.
2019 was one of our most successful years ever, with over 1,300 ticketed events across both venues and 179 functions/conferences and weddings. We welcomed over 130,000 of you lovely lot through our doors, and that’s a lot of footfall to contend with, so we use January as a chance to get our buildings shipshape and ready for another jam-packed year of varied entertainment and events.
To give you a small insight into what we’ve been getting up to, let’s start with Our General Services team all of whom have been busy, in the Villa Marina repainting in and around the Royal Hall, re-decorating the dressing rooms, jet washing around the buildings and grounds, sanding and polishing the floors plus lots of other odd-jobs that we can only do when people aren’t using the building. In the Gaiety Theatre, we’ve been making sure our fantastic theatre is all spick and span, giving it a few minor touch ups after a busy 2019 and a particularly busy Panto season.
Our technical and staging team have also been very busy testing sound equipment, lighting and rigging in both of our venues making sure it’s all ready to blast out huge tunes, light up our beautiful stages and ensuring all equipment can safely hoist components such as curtains, lights, scenery, stage effects and, sometimes, people!
The events and programming team are also busy planning and scheduling shows, functions, conferences, weddings and large scale community events. This isn’t just for 2020 either, the team have already plotted out a footprint of major events that need to be factored into 2021 and are also looking ahead to 2022 and beyond!
Finally, we’ve also had a little refresh in Dragon’s Castle, with Duffy and Waldo set to be joined by a brand new castle mate. We’re also excited to announce and reveal some more exciting updates in February 2020 which will improve the accessibility of the area too… so watch this space!
So while it might look like our doors are closed, rest assured there’s still plenty going on behind the scenes and our teams are working hard to make sure all is finished before the first events of the year take place in the Villa Marina – IOM Ballroom Dancing Competition on Saturday 25th January and in the Gaiety Theatre – Next Big Thing on Saturday 1st February.
On behalf of all here at the VillaGaiety, we look forward to throwing open our doors again in the coming weeks and welcoming you all in 2020 to VillaGaiety.
If you want to check out what’s coming up, don’t delay visit villagaiety.com TODAY or call 01624 600555. Also, why not subscribe to our e-newsletter and you could be the ‘first to know’ about upcoming shows and events across our complex.