Leicester’s two newest hotels have opened their doors to the paying public – and are among the few places which still has rooms available when Kasabian play their Solstice II gig in the city next summer.
The new Novotel and Adagio are part of a £50 million Great Central Square accommodation, office and leisure scheme which has just been completed by Leicester property developers Charles Street Buildings.
The 154-bed Novotel hotel and a six-storey Aparthotel Adagio, with 95 studio/one bed apartments, are just across the road from Highcross shopping centre in Vaughan Way.
Both are part of the Accor brand which has named the joint development one of its European flagship dual sites.
James Conaghan, general manager of the hotels, said they are still taking bookings for the night of the Saturday, June 20 Kasabian gig in the city's Victoria Park – which is set to attract 50,000 revellers to the city.
Most other hotels are fully booked up for the gig – tickets sold out within minutes of going on sale.
The Ibis, near Leicester station, is one of the few others with space, according to the booking.com site.
The same website shows that the Croft Hotel in Stanley Road, a two minute walk from Victoria Park, has a double room available for £899 – although that does include breakfast.
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Even the Marriott Hotel, a taxi ride outside the city near junction 21 of the M1, is advertising rooms at £1,000 on its site.
Mr Conaghan said there were rooms available for around £285 in the Novotel and availability in the Adagio – but he didn’t expect that to last.
He said: “We’ve got very few rooms left.
“We’ve had bookings come through since September and they were the clever people who came through the Accor website.
“We’ve also got a conference that weekend so we will be fully booked within the next couple of months for sure.”
Formal permission for this summer’s concert was granted in November despite police saying they witnessed ‘levels of drunkenness unlike anything they had ever seen before in their careers’ at a 2014 summer Solstice Kasabian concert there.
The local lads also played a historic Victoria Park concert back in 2016 after their beloved Leicester City won the Premier League.
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The band have five 海角视频 number one albums to their name and have sold more than 5.5 million albums worldwide.
They have won a Brit, seven NME awards, four Q Awards and have headlined Glastonbury Festival, as well as V Festival, T in the Park, Reading and Leeds Festival and numerous other festivals worldwide.
Previously guitarist Serge Pizzorno said: “We’re absolutely buzzing to be able to put on Solstice II in our home town of Leicester.
“Anyone who came last time would know how special it was and to get the opportunity to do it again is beyond a dream.”
Staff at the Belmont Hotel in New Walk, which is three minutes from Victoria Park, and the Mercure Leicester Grand Hotel, a 10 minute walk away, said they had been booked out for weeks.
Celebrating the opening of his hotels Mr Conaghan said: “These are exciting times for the city of Leicester.
“Its reputation as a national tourist destination is growing, which is creating a clear demand for more hotel rooms and eateries to cater for the influx of visitors, tourists and businesses.
“We’re all thrilled with this development, and we hope the city and its residents will feel a sense of pride too.
“This is not just another Novotel or Adagio hotel – the investment that has gone into the design and all of the extra details really show how much the owners want to bring something particularly unique to Leicester.
“The results are stunning and instil a certain confidence and trust in the future of the city.
“The hard work from everyone involved has really paid off.”
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City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “The investment from Novotel and Adagio is a ringing endorsement of Leicester as a place that is continuing to grow as a visitor destination, with record numbers of people choosing to spend time in our city.
“We have built on the momentum generated by the King Richard III story and Leicester City’s amazing Premier League win and as a result, visitor numbers are growing year on year.
“According to recent tourism figures, over 11 million people visited Leicester last year and, after six years of continued growth, tourism was worth more than £650 million to the local economy.
“These new, high quality hotels show that there is already a strong interest in Leicester as a destination and will help strengthen our ambitious tourism action plan.
“It is clear to see that while a few years ago nobody deemed Leicester an attraction, people are now coming for business as well as pleasure and they want to stay.”