Bristol’s flagship concert venue announced that they will no longer share its name with a slave trader and commits to change their name by autumn 2020, following the last weekend’s anti-racism protest. Puza Snigdha reports.
“Following the Black Lives Matter protests and the removal of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol yesterday, Bristol Music Trust would like to reassert our commitment to changing the name of Colston Hall and give an update on the timescale for doing so,” the venue authority posted on their website.
The concert hall is currently named after a 17th-century slave trade, Edward Colston, whose statue was been pulled down by the protesters during a recent Black Lives Matter protests in the city.
The venue authority confirmed that the name will be changed ‘as a demonstration of our commitment’.
“The current name does not reflect our values as a progressive, forward-thinking and open arts organisation,” the trust said in a statement. “We want it to be representative of the city, a beacon of its values of hope, diversity and inclusion.”