The Glasshouse International Centre for Music – Upcoming Gigs & Events

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music is a major live music and music education venue on Gateshead Quays. Home to Royal Northern Sinfonia, its programme stretches from contemporary gigs and jazz to folk, classical music, family events and music-making.

History of The Glasshouse

The Glasshouse opened to the public on 17 December 2004 as Sage Gateshead, after around a decade of planning for a major international music centre on the south bank of the Tyne. It formed an important part of the cultural regeneration of Gateshead Quays alongside the Millennium Bridge and Baltic, creating a purpose-built home for live performance, music education and community music-making.

Designed by Foster + Partners, with acoustics by Arup, the building is instantly recognisable for its sweeping glass and stainless-steel roof. Beneath it sit separate performance halls designed to be acoustically isolated from one another, allowing different concerts and activities to take place at the same time. The main hall was designed for world-class orchestral performance while retaining the flexibility needed for amplified gigs, jazz and other styles of music.

The venue became the permanent home of Royal Northern Sinfonia, founded in 1958, while its wider programme has always gone well beyond classical music. Folk, rock, pop, jazz, world music, electronic music and emerging artists have all been part of the programme, alongside an extensive learning and participation offer.

The building was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 and went on to win the RIBA Inclusive Design Award that year. Two decades later, The Glasshouse says it has hosted more than 10,000 performances and welcomed millions of audience members, while its education programmes have delivered hundreds of thousands of music lessons.

In 2023, Sage Gateshead became The Glasshouse International Centre for Music. The new name marked a fresh chapter for the organisation while keeping the venue’s original purpose at its heart: bringing artists, audiences and music-makers together under one of the North East’s most distinctive roofs.

What to expect at The Glasshouse

Sage One is the main concert hall, seating around 1,700 people across three levels, while Sage Two is a smaller flexible performance space holding up to around 600 people. The building also has bars, food and drink facilities and extensive views across the Tyne. It is step-free throughout, including performance spaces, Box Office, toilets and food and drink areas.

Upcoming gigs at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

Upcoming concerts and gigs at The Glasshouse are pulled from SoundBite North East’s structured Event/Gig records and displayed in date order. As new previews are added through V3.1, this section will update automatically.

Getting to The Glasshouse

By Metro: Gateshead is the closest Metro station, around a 10-minute walk from the venue.

By car: The Glasshouse has its own car park behind the building. Use NE8 2BA for the car park.

By taxi: There is a taxi drop-off point beside the Tyne Bridge entrance.

On foot: The venue is on Gateshead Quays, close to Baltic and the Millennium Bridge, with step-free approaches available.

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