Sam Fender's Newcastle gigs helped bring an estimated £15 million to local economy

14 June 2023, 16:37 | Updated: 14 June 2023, 16:54

Sam Fender at St James' Park — Sam Fender played two dates at St James' Park this June. Picture: Niall Lea/ Press

By Jenny Mensah

The Geordie singer-songwriter played two milestone gigs at St James' Park last week, with Brian Johnson among the surprise guests.

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Sam Fender's recent homecoming shows in Newcastle are said to have helped bring in over £15 million to the local economy.

The North Shield singer-songwriter played two historic headline shows at Newcastle F.C.'s St James' Park on 9th and 10th June, making him the first Geordie artist ever to do so.

The sold-out dates saw over 100,000 fans gather in the city to watch the Geordie singer-songwriter across the weekend, with a special event launched by Greggs to mark the milestone.

Now it has been estimated that the gigs, alongside two Pink gigs at Sunderland's The Stadium of Light and The Blaydon Races, have helped bring "at least" £15m to the North East Economy.

According to The Northern Echo, Stephen Patterson, chief executive of the NE1 Ltd business improvement district company said: "Hats off to Sam, his team and NUFC for putting on such a fantastic show. It highlighted what a spectacular asset we have in St James’ Park.

"A rare city centre Premier League stadium with all that the city has to offer literally a short walk away.“It is massively important for the city to host events of this scale and calibre and we need more of them.”

Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central said the Sam Fender gigs would be remembered for "years to come".

He added: "“With Sam Fender selling out St James’ Park on consecutive nights and the annual Blaydon Races on Friday, we’ve had more than 100,000 people coming into Newcastle for these three huge events alone, on top of our regular weekend visitors, all contributing to an incredible atmosphere.

“Newcastle is renowned for holding major events and we love staging them here, but it takes a huge collective effort to make sure everything runs smoothly. I’d like to give huge thanks to our council teams who were out over the weekend and whose planning and preparation helped people to have a great time and enjoy themselves. I’d also like to thank all our partners who came together to keep the city moving safely and help show once again that Newcastle is more than up for the task of hosting these major events.”

The duo of gigs were full of unforgettable moments, which included inviting none other than AC/DC's Brian Johnson on stage and his former guitar teacher for a rendition of Back In Black and Shook Me All Night Long.