Since opening in August 2019, P&J Live has been through a journey no one could have imagined.
Replacing Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC), P&J Live offers a brand new and exciting events space capable of attracting big names.
Then in 2020, the pandemic forced the cancellation of major events and the closure of arenas and conference centres across the globe.
Now, in 2021, P&J Live has transformed into a mass vaccination centre, playing its part in the fight against Covid and once again welcoming the people of Aberdeen back through its door (although it’s for a very different reason!).
P&J Live’s parent company ASM Global is also preparing for the future through the launch of a brand new safety initiative called VenueShield, so that you can return to live events in the future with confidence.
The future is looking bright for Aberdeen’s premier indoor events centre! To help you get to know it better, we’re sharing a guide to P&J Live in numbers – check it out.
P&J Live timeline
At four times the size of the previous AECC it replaced, and with a maximum capacity for 15,000 people for a gig, P&J Live proudly took the title of Scotland’s largest indoor arena when it opened.
Here’s a timeline of key dates in its history so far…
A state-of-the-art venue
It cost £333 million to build the state-of-the-art P&J Live, split over two levels and designed to work for conferences, banquets, exhibitions, concerts and large indoor events.
The facilities on offer are comprehensive, to say the least. It boasts 48,000 sqm of flexible event space, seven conference spaces, three 2,000 sqm multi-purpose event halls (each with a seated capacity of 1,700), two onsite hotels (350 bedrooms), over 540 toilets, 2,200 car parking spaces, plus the ability to run multiple events simultaneously, and so much more!
There’s also a Changing Places Facility on the main concourse level, providing a spacious, safe, comfortable and clean environment to all who require it – it’s one of only a few available in the city.
Adapting to a mass vaccination centre
Last year, P&J Live was getting set to stage around 50 arena performances with around 350,000 attendees – and that’s not including exhibition visitors, conference delegates and banqueting attendees. On average, 40,000 people per month would pass through the P&J Live doors (although that would vary!).
To welcome that volume of guests, the venue had around 60 permanent staff plus an army of casual staff and contractors. For an event like Offshore Europe, you could expect to see around 500+ staff on site in a day!
When the pandemic hit, the majority of staff were originally put on furlough, leaving a team of just five people working. When P&J Live adapted to open as a mass vaccination centre, most of the staff started back working in various roles, from chefs to event managers and venue hosts (not including cleaning and security staff).
What’s to come…
As previously mentioned, P&J Live is just one of over 300 legendary venues around the world belonging to ASM Global.
To help reopen its venues safely when the time comes, ASM Global has established an industry-leading environmental hygiene protocol called VenueShield.
Designed to ensure venues offer the highest standards of cleanliness and health and safety for staff and visitors, VenueShield has relied on expert advice to create new protocols and procedures.
Some of the extensive measures being explored include air quality control, surface cleaning, hand sanitisers, reduced touch points, contactless transactions, daily monitoring systems and much more.
For the latest updates on future events at P&J Live, check its website out here.
Whether you’re visiting P&J Live for your vaccination or looking ahead to a future visit for an event, find out more about the changes P&J Live has made and what to expect.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.
