The Bournemouth International Centre (commonly known as the BIC/ˈbɪk/) in Bournemouth, Dorset, was opened in September 1984. It is one of the largest venues for conferences, exhibitions, entertainment and events in southern England. Additionally, it is well known for hosting national conferences of major British political parties and trade unions.
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In recent years, both Labour and the Conservatives have held their conferences at larger venues in urban centres, such as Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool, but the BIC has continued to host the Liberal Democrat Conference.[5]
Venues
At opening, it comprised two halls, the Windsor Hall and the Tregonwell Hall as well as a leisure swimming pool which has since been closed to provide further conference and exhibition space.
The venue's Windsor Hall has a concert capacity of 6,500 (standing) or 4,000 (seated) and is one of the bigger indoor music venues in England,[6] often included on the arena tours of major artists. This hall has the largest tensile grid in Europe – a tensioned mesh comprising 30 miles of steel wire hung above the stage which can suspend approximately 90 tonnes of weight.[7]
In 1990, the circular Purbeck Hall was added at a cost of £6million.[7]
The Solent Hall can house exhibitions or hold up to 2,000 people for standing music concerts. As part of a refurbishment costing £22million, this hall controversially replaced the popular swimming pool and wave machine in 2004 after an unsuccessful campaign to save the facility.[7][8]