Stage set for Spice Girls in Sunderland

The staging equipment for the much-anticipated Spice World show at the Stadium of Light has started to arrive, and Wearside’s shops, bars, cafes and businesses are preparing to give thousands of customers what they really, really want with a whole host of Spice Girls-themed events and attractions.

This includes the Fanzone in Sunniside where a sold-out Spice Girls garden party is taking place on Thursday from 12pm until 6pm.

Meanwhile, at the Stadium of Light, the concert courtyard opens at 2pm, with an extensive range of food and drinks available before the main doors open at 5pm.

Six hundred catering staff will be on hand to provide concert-goers with a wide range of tasty street food, with alcohol and soft drinks also on sale within the courtyard and from the stadium kiosks.

Fans are also invited to visit Sunderland’s own Fans Museum on their way to the stadium, which is hosting an exhibition of Spice Girls memorabilia and evening of musical entertainment from 10am until 10pm.

Sunderland City Council Cabinet Member for Communities and Culture, Councillor John Kelly said: "We want everyone to enjoy their time in our city, with our businesses making the best of this fantastic opportunity to showcase the many cultural and leisure attractions that we have here in Sunderland."Travel and transport arrangements are in place to help people get to and from the concert with as little fuss as possible, and we have a trained team of volunteer event makers in and around the stadium to help our guests find their way around."Sunderland is an award-winning events city, and working with our partners at Sunderland Football Club we are determined to make the return of major international music concerts to the Stadium of Light a success."This will be the 20th concert to be staged at the Stadium of Light.