Eight years since its creation – and just over three years after it was last relocated – Cardiff’s biggest independent warehouse events venue has completed its move to a new, bigger site.
As of this week, The DEPOT, who have established themselves as one of the best-loved entertainment brands in the city, has moved to a new 30,000 sq ft venue on Curran Road.
The venue now forms part of developer Vastint’s transformative, mixed-use development scheme which when complete, will strengthen connections between Cardiff City Centre and the bay along the banks of the River Taff.
With the move and refurbishment costing more than £500,000 in total, The DEPOT now boasts a total capacity of 2,500 (up from 1,600 at the previous venue), with hundreds of guests already being welcomed through the doors this week.
The new site now includes three permanent street-food kitchens based inside shipping containers, as well as a second, smaller room for putting on more intimate shows and events.
Nick Saunders, founder and Managing Director of The DEPOT said: “It has been a mammoth task and a huge amount of work for us to get our new venue ready to move in, whilst also continuing to deliver our schedule of events without causing any interruptions for our customers – but we did it!
I am so grateful to the team. We couldn’t be happier to be moved into our new site – and we’re excited to have more space to put on even bigger and better DEPOT events in 2023 and beyond.”
This is the second time The DEPOT has moved to a bigger site, after first opening in 2014 as a temporary pop-up in a now demolished warehouse on Dumballs Road.
The original site was long earmarked for demolition as part of the ongoing regeneration plans for Dumballs Road, so in 2019, the venue was relocated to a bigger venue on Williams Way.
The DEPOT started life as a pop-up street food venue after being granted a temporary three-month licence in late 2014. It was the brainchild of then 23-year-old Nicholas Saunders, who later gained planning permission for the site to stay open for a further four years.
Over time, the DEPOT has established a reputation for a wide variety of events, including food and drink festivals, street food events, vintage fairs, weddings, Christmas parties, immersive theatre productions, sports screenings and corporate conferences – as well as DEPOT’s smash-hit creation, Bingo Lingo.
