Katy Wheeler

Seven live events will take place at Sunderland’s Keel Square from August 21 to August 31, including tributes to George Michael, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, the Beatles, Shania Twain and other artists, alongside performances by Armand Van Helden and other DJs. Tickets remain available through Skiddle, with food, drink and fairground attractions planned inside the venue. Nearby businesses and key facilities will remain accessible, but entry to the square requires a ticket. Several city-centre roads will close during the two event periods, while designated car parks will remain open via diversion routes. The schedule overlaps with Sunderland AFC’s first home match of the season against Fulham on August 30.

Sunderland’s historic park bandstands will host four free weekends of entertainment under the Back to the Bandstands programme. Events include art and poetry at Mowbray Park on August 22, live music on August 29, a fashion-and-art event at Roker Park on September 5, and folk music and dancing at Barnes Park on September 13. Activities include workshops, performances, craft stalls and a ceilidh, with all events open to people of every age.

Sandhill View Academy pupils in Sunderland collected their GCSE results and outlined their plans for further education and future careers. Jaxon Dagg achieved a grade 6, three grade 5s, a 4 and a 3 and plans to study media and film production at Bede College, inspired partly by the planned Crown Works Studios. Maddie Brown will study drama at Bede College, while Jenna Gibson plans to study maths, politics and history there. Anioluwa Akanbi-Inawo achieved five grade 9s, two grade 8s and a 7 and will study physics, chemistry and maths at Gateshead College. Headteacher Jill Dodd said the proportion achieving grade 4 or higher in English and maths rose to 62.7%.

Sunderland residents are raising money for Jude Hazard, a 15-year-old with an exceptionally rare and aggressive vascular cancer that cannot currently be treated in the UK. His family has raised more than £55,000 through GoFundMe toward an initial £75,000 needed for treatment abroad, with Japan and Boston identified as promising options. Belle Vue House is holding a carnival on 22 August to support the appeal, which will also cover medical, travel and recovery costs.

Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens will close on 29 August 2026 for a major £13.6 million redevelopment and is expected to reopen in late 2028. The project will create new ground-floor galleries, a new entrance linking the museum with Mowbray Park, the community learning facility The Growing Space, improved displays and visitor facilities, and essential repairs to the historic building. Outreach programmes will continue across the city during the closure, while visitors have two weeks to see the museum before the work begins.

Sunniside Gardens in Sunderland will host a free Garden Games event on September 5, featuring giant games, workout stations, climbing, food and drink, and activities for people of all ages and abilities. The event will also introduce Urban Hybrid, a paired fitness challenge inspired by Hyrox that includes running or walking laps alongside skiing, rowing, cycling, wall-ball and bodyweight stations. Urban Hybrid is open to participants aged 16 and over, but places are limited and advance registration is required. The event is supported by Active Sunderland, Everyone Active, Media Savvy CIC and Diego's Joint CIC.

Louise Powell’s novel Underdogs, set in the 1998 world of independent, unlicensed greyhound racing in County Durham, tells the story of a ten-year-old boy who has lost his mother and bonds with his father through dog-track culture. Written in the dialect of the local flapping community, the book draws on Powell’s childhood and aims to preserve the social history of a working-class community threatened with disappearance after the closure and destruction of local tracks. The novel won the 2023 Sid Chaplin Northern Writers’ Award and has received strong reviews from The Financial Times and The Guardian. Published by JM Originals, an imprint of John Murray Press, it was launched at Newcastle Greyhound Stadium, while Powell is developing two further historical novels focused on family, class and underground economies.

Nineteen-year-old Sunderland boxer Ella Lonsdale has joined the GB Boxing Academy Squad, bringing her closer to her ambition of representing Great Britain at the Olympics. The 60kg fighter, developed at East End ABC in Hendon, was also selected as a Team GB reserve for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, though she was not ultimately required. She now trains regularly at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield and will make her first major appearance for Great Britain at the women-only Silesian Competition in Gliwice, Poland, from August 25 to 29.

Family-owned Sunderland restaurant Rumour Has It has closed after three and a half years because rising National Living Wage and employer National Insurance costs, higher food and utility bills, and reduced business-rates relief made trading increasingly difficult. Owners Lynsey and Dave Foster said the closure was a deliberate decision rather than a bankruptcy, confirmed that staff and suppliers would be paid in full, and promised refunds for deposits. The sister restaurant The Terrace is unaffected and remains open.

Trevor Horn, the producer born in Hetton and widely credited with helping define 1980s pop, will perform with his band at Independent in Sunderland on December 4, 2026. The show will draw on his extensive career working with artists including The Buggles, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones, ABC, Pet Shop Boys, Seal, Yes, Tina Turner, Robbie Williams and Paul McCartney. Horn has won multiple Brit Awards, a Grammy, a CBE and an Ivor Novello Award, and tickets are available through Universe.com.

A memorial to Sunderland World War Two prisoner of war Len Gibson in South Shields has been expanded with 10 metres of used Metro track and sleepers donated and installed by Nexus on VJ Day 2026. The tracks evoke the Death Railway that Gibson and thousands of Allied prisoners were forced to build between Thailand and Myanmar. The sculpture, commissioned by philanthropist Brian Burnie and created by artist Ray Lonsdale, depicts Gibson offering a handmade guitar to a child as a symbol of peace and forgiveness. The project also highlights Nexus’s sustainability and community-volunteering commitments.

Culture House in Sunderland will open on September 12 with HOME, a new immersive production created by Southpaw Dance Company. The performance will combine live dance, digital visuals, projections and storytelling about Sunderland, with 80 local volunteers performing alongside professional dancers on and inside the building. People aged 16 and over from Sunderland and surrounding areas are invited to participate, regardless of experience or identity. The project is supported by the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

A photo-led report captures Sunderland's third annual Unity in the Community event at Sunderland Minster, attended by hundreds of people. The free event featured music, family entertainment, food, and voluntary and community stalls, with the aim of strengthening connections across the city. Organiser Clare MacLaren praised the strong turnout and highlighted the work of local groups supporting diverse communities, including asylum seekers, refugees, and residents seeking wellbeing activities.

Sunderland photographer John James Addison presented Kula Shaker frontman Crispian Mills with a framed print of a photograph he took at the band’s 1998 Newcastle performance. Although Addison could not hand it over personally at Kula Shaker’s recent Fire Station gig, the band’s tour manager delivered it, and Mills later thanked him by message. Addison described the concert as a full-circle experience and is compiling a coffee-table book featuring his music photography.

Dave Stewart will return to Sunderland’s Fire Station for intimate performances on September 14 and 15, 2026, debuting songs from his forthcoming album The Way It Was Back Then alongside career highlights and storytelling. The album draws on his childhood in Sunderland and includes The House Where I Was Born, a personal tribute to the city. Tickets start at £37 and go on sale August 15.

National Mackem Day is celebrated on August 12 with music, stalls and performances at Sheepfolds Stables in Sunderland. The feature highlights the city’s industrial and shipbuilding heritage, the pride of its people, Roker Pier and lighthouse, and the newly opened Keel Crossing, while also recalling local figures and traditions that contribute to Sunderland’s identity.

Sunderland restaurants Babaji and Yuvraaj have been shortlisted in the Regional Restaurant of the Year – North East category at the 2026 Asian Restaurant & Takeaway Awards. The winners will be announced at the London Hilton on Park Lane on October 12, 2026. The awards received more than 1,250 public nominations, while organisers highlighted the economic and community contribution of Asian hospitality businesses alongside pressures from rising wages, employer National Insurance, food and utility costs, and reduced business-rates relief.

Bamburgh Castle has announced A Christmas Carousel, its 2026 festive theme inspired by Christmas songs and carols. The immersive event will run from 14 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, transforming the castle’s staterooms with theatrical festive scenes, a snow-covered woodland walk, Victorian feasts, decorated trees and angelic installations. Entry will be included with standard castle admission, while personalised Father Christmas visits and events such as wreath-making will be available on selected dates. The announcement follows growing popularity for the castle’s annual Christmas experiences, including national television coverage last year.

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust has welcomed 93 Foundation Year 1 doctors, including graduates from the universities of Sunderland and Newcastle. Over two years, the doctors will rotate through medicine, surgery and community services, including placements at Hopewood Park, before progressing to specialist training. Trust leaders highlighted the graduates’ skills and the importance of retaining locally trained doctors, while new recruit Francis Allen said he was eager to train in the North East and support patients in Sunderland and South Tyneside.

Sunderland artist Darren Timby has created a Marilyn Monroe portrait using more than 10,000 screws. The 1m-by-1.2m artwork, made to mark what would have been Monroe’s 100th birthday, is a smaller and more portable successor to his 2020 portrait, which used over 26,000 screws. Timby installed part of the new work at St Peter’s Riverside so passersby could watch him work, linking the piece to Sunderland’s shipbuilding and manufacturing heritage. The finished portrait will be displayed alongside two other Monroe works at the 24North East gallery, where all three are available for sale.

Poised, a 90-minute documentary filmed over 19 months across Sunderland, has been longlisted for Best Sports Documentary at the Grierson Awards. Produced by Two Yanks and a Brit, the film follows Made for the Cage coach Steven George France and explores how MMA supports men dealing with difficult life experiences and mental-health challenges. Directed by Toby Robson, it has toured international festivals and will receive a UK-wide streaming release through STV from August 10.

The former Dewhirst factory site at Pennywell Industrial Estate in Sunderland has completed its transformation into a retail park after Greggs and Starbucks opened new drive-through units on July 31. UK Land Estates developed the scheme alongside existing Wickes, Aldi and KFC outlets following planning approval in 2022. The redevelopment has brought five major brands to a prominent city gateway, created dozens of local jobs and is expected to boost Sunderland’s economy.

Ten-year-old Sunderland pupil Summer Pallas has won a world karate title in the Kata category at the WUKF World Championships in Romania. After taking up karate five years ago by following her father Dean and sister Mae, Summer has progressed to black belt and previously won a European title. She trains with Kanzen Tohoku Club and was selected for the Kanzen England squad, with her family, sponsors and charitable support helping fund her competitions. Her mother Lisa highlighted the club’s role in building confidence, friendships and inclusion among children, including those with special educational needs.

An archival photo gallery looks back at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland as it approaches closure on 31 July 2026. The venue, owned by the University of Sunderland, is closing after the university said it could no longer fund repairs and maintenance. The gallery highlights the centre's glassmaking heritage, construction, cultural exhibitions and visits by figures including Boris Johnson and Antony Gormley, while noting campaigners' ongoing efforts to save it.