Welcome to The Pavilion Theatre

About Us

The current Pavilion Theatre is in fact the third Pavilion in Rhyl. The first Pavilion was sited at the promenade end of Rhyl Pier and seated over 3,000. Built in 1891, it was destroyed by fire in 1901. The second Pavilion was built in 1908 at a cost of £16,500 and seated just over 1,000. It did a great service to Rhyl in playing host to international artists, and presenting a vast number of productions and significant community events. When, in 1974, the Pavilion was demolished it was compared by everyone in the town to “losing a dear friend”. When the current Pavilion was opened in 1991 it fulfilled a commitment made by the then Borough Council seventeen years earlier.

Located on the East Parade and seafront of Rhyl, the Pavilion Theatre is a self contained entity, which is linked to an adjoining building, The Rhyl Sun Centre (a leisure facility and water park attraction, managed by Clwyd Leisure Ltd). The Pavilion is owned and managed by Denbighshire County Council. The 1,031 seat theatre was designed to accommodate both theatre and orchestral concert audiences. The Pavilion has 20 permanent and 18 casual members of staff, and a core team of some 25 volunteers.

Programming

In terms of programming, the Pavilion Theatre prides itself on the fact that, like its predecessors, it can attract world-class artists such as Bryn Terfel and Katherine Jenkins and play week runs of West End Musicals, whilst at the same time it can accommodate and facilitate vibrant Theatre in the Community, Community Dance and other community groups. The Pavilion Theatre’s mission statement reads, “the arts are for everyone to experience and enjoy, and will positively encourage access to those experiences for all members of the community”.

The Pavilion Theatre is recognised by the Arts Council as part of a network of regional performing arts centres across Wales. Customer Surveys undertaken evidence a strong local following, and that visitors are attracted from all over North Wales, the Cheshire border region and beyond. The Pavilion has been pleased to stage the North Wales premiers of West End musicals, Saturday Night Fever, Footloose, Flashdance and Never Forget.

It is a fact that more young people vote in X Factor competitions than in General Elections, and the Pavilion was proud to welcome Rhydian here in April this year and looks forward to welcoming JLS in January 2010.

In November 2008, as part of its promotion of Welsh culture, the Pavilion hosted Yr Ŵyl Gerdd Dant, Wales’ biggest one-day cultural festival (a national televised event) that involved over 1,200 competitors, and 12 various Cerdd Dant (a unique form of penillion singing to harp accompaniment) competitions for all ages. The festival also hosts other folk singing, folk dancing and recital to harp competitions.

Supporting the Arts and Young People

In support of Arts and Young People, the Theatre last year facilitated a significant range of activities that included: a programme of 5 dedicated schools and young people education/participation events that engaged 32 individual schools across Denbighshire; 5 Youth Dance projects that realised 6,549 attendances; 3 Youth Theatre projects that attracted 5,010 attendances; Young Musical Singer Competition 500+ participants; Denbighshire Arts In Schools Festival with over 1,000 participants. In total, some 11,559 attendance at youth performances were recorded in the period.

In addition to the above the Pavilion programmes a broad range of activities from every genre of theatre – from Orchestral Concerts and Ballet to Contemporary Dance and Stand Up Comedy.

In the period 2008/9, the theatre received two positive independent quality monitoring assessments of it performances, undertaken by Arts Council Officers and National Advisers.

The Pavilion’s operation has a strong person centred focus, which makes the customer feel valued. The fact that the Pavilion belongs to, and is valued by the people was evidenced in 2008, when 23,000 people signed a petition against a threatened reduction in the theatre’s funding.

A significant, and high profile initiative for the Pavilion Theatre during 2008, was the commissioning of an independent report An Economic and Social Impact Study of Rhyl Pavilion Theatre by Professor Dominic Shellard of Sheffield University. The report demonstrated that the seafront venue helps generate more than £4million each year for the local economy and that its emphasis on engagement with its local community produces a significant economic and social impact for the town of Rhyl, the North Wales coast and Wales as a whole.