BRISTOL, UK (CelebrityAccess) — The floating live music venue Thekla is in line for a visit to the dry dock for a major, £1m overhaul, according to its operators DHP Family.
Thekla, which was built in 1958 as an ocean-going cargo vessel, was repurposed into a live music venue in 1982 by Vivian Stanshill, and has hosted everything from live music and DJs to an art installation by the mysterious artist Banksy.
The venue will officially go dark after June 1st when it will be into a nearby dry dock facility for 3 months of refit. Thekla will return to its usual position in the harbor in early September 2019 when it will reopen to the public.
The Thekla team will announce the exact date of its reopening through its website and social media channels.
According to DHP Family, the refurb will include a new steel offset hull welded into place around the whole of the existing hull. Although Thekla undergoes regular, routine inspection and repair a detailed survey showed that the existing hull is near the end of its life, DHP Family said.
The majority of the £1m overhaul will focus on the hull but will include other repairs and upgrades as well.
Thekla’s last major refurb was in 2014 when it spent a summer in dry dock with 500,000 in upgrades. The following year, it received a new £50,000 state-of-the-art L’Acoustics audio system.
“There’s a lot of love for Thekla in Bristol, around the country and worldwide. Both music fans and bands like Florence and the Machine, White Denim, Mumford & Sons, Ellie Goulding and many others who have played there over the years have taken part in some great nights. We’re committed to preserving that heritage and that’s why we’re getting the new hull fitted – we need to make sure that Thekla continues to be a great night out for the next fifty years,” says DHP MD George Akins.
