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Front Row: The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the MAC in Belfast and does the UK need more music arenas?

The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the MAC in Belfast and does the UK need more music arenas?

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the MAC in Belfast and does the UK need more music arenas?

The winner of the Yoto Carnegie Medal, the MAC in Belfast, does the UK need more arenas?

Nick Ahad hears about plans for eight new music arenas and asks how they can work with smaller venues to create a thriving music scene.

Front Row hears from the winner of this year’s Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, which is awarded for a book for children or young people. Manon Steffan Ros has won for her novel The Blue Book of Nebo, the first time the prize has been awarded to a book in translation. Originally written in Welsh, it explores Welsh identity and culture.

There are plans for eight new arenas across the UK, including ones in Cardiff, Bristol, Gateshead and Dundee. But does the UK really need more arenas when smaller, grassroots music venues are said to be struggling, closing at the rate of one per week? Mark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust, and Tom Lynch of ASM Global, who run arenas all over the world, discuss. 

Steven Rainey reports from the MAC, the Metropolitan Arts Centre, in Belfast, which has been shortlisted for this year’s Art Fund Museum of the Year. The museum’s chief executive Anne McReynolds and creative director Hugh Mulholland discuss how the venue has thrived as a creative hub in a Belfast looking to the future after the Troubles. 

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

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