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Hi - I am going to see Ed Sheeran tomorrow night - are there any decent places to park close to the stadium rather than the official car parks which I assume will be a nightmare to get out of (just trying to avoid being sat in the car for hours in a queue). Happy to pay for it, just don't want the wait!
Thank you 😊
The easiest way is probably use one of the park and ride options from a Metro station.
Depends where you're staying and which side of town you need to be on. If it's anything like a match day it'll take forever to get out unless you park miles away and that's not just the stadium it's all the nearby roads and the Wear bridge.
Metro is a good shout but I've been stuck on that with thousands of Take That fans before and it was a traumatic experience.
I’m coming up from Yorkshire and heading back home (not staying over) if that helps?
Although in Gateshead Heworth station is next to the A184 and easy for park and ride if the trains are running late enough.
The stadium of light Metro station also lists itself as park and ride for £1:20 all day. Could work if you arrive very early and get the metro somewhere else for dinner first.
https://www.nexus.org.uk/metro/timetables-and-stations/heworth?day=monfri&time=12
In that case I'd park in the new Livingstone Road or St Mary's carpark. If they're full drive around near the Empire Theatre/University Metro area.
Then when you're done it's a 15 to 20 minute walk and straight up the A690 to the A19 and away.
You can queue for an hour to get into St Mary’s car park on a normal Saturday. Leaving can be an equal problem. Likewise for Sunniside MSCP. Livingstone road is good.
There’s a couple of car parks around Park Lane bus station as well (not sure if the old Civic Centre car park is still open, or whether it’s undergoing demolition.) Parking in Sunderland council car parks is meant to be free Mon-Fri after 3.
Heworth’s a good shout. Could also do Pallion Park & Ride, though I’m not sure I’d want to head that way late at night, never mind leave anything of value, like a car, in Pallion.
Watching with interest as going to it on Saturday, from Yorkshire!
Vehicle security for on street parking is widely available, just look for the young lad on a mountain bike with a hoodie...
Apolgies Sunderland folk... just a bit of fun but i am married to a Sunderland person although she claims to be from Whitburn..
Apolgies Sunderland folk… just a bit of fun but i am married to a Sunderland person although she claims to be from Whitburn..
I know someone who claims to be from Cleadon and she lives down the road in the Nook. Same thing.
To be honest in my 35 years in Sunderland I never had any bother even though I had multiple attention grabbing vehicles. I was never a victim of serious crime until I moved to the 'lentil belt' in leafy Sheffield.
@northernremedy This might be a bit late but here goes... We ended up coming up the A1 and then heading on the A1231 into Sunderland where there were some yellow 'Concert park & walk' signs that we followed (just before a big Sainsbury's and the Northern Spire Bridge). This turned out to be a whole series of office units that were allowing parking - some were busy, others were practically empty. Some had 'no parking' signs or security on turning cars back but the official word we were told that we could park anywhere unless told otherwise. By the time we got back out of the gig people had also parked on the sides of the roads too but I would say that there was more than ample parking and it wasn't that busy trying to find a spot.
However the walk was 40 minutes to the stadium (50 for us as we were in the orange zone which meant walking right round to the far end from the direction we had come) - I measured it at 2.6 miles.
On returning, it was definitely the best decision as we were walking by cars all along the road sat there in queues but because we were parked further out it was pretty straight-forward getting back onto the A1231 with slow-moving traffic but not hideously so. The gig finished at 10.35pm and I was back at home (Harrogate) at 1.20am.
I hope that helps and have fun – the stage set is stunning!
@northernremedy - so what did you make of it? I enjoyed the show (the set was amazing) but the acoustics were shocking when he played anything more than the gentle acoustic stuff - just a wall of bass reverberating around the stadium. I could barely make out a thing in Maisie Peters' set.
Really enjoyed it!!!!! The bass was very heavy, but sounds like they’d sorted it a bit more by the Saturday night, it certainly wasn’t that bad. Ed was excellent, and the show really good. To say how big a venue and crowd it was it felt remarkably ‘close’
Ps we were in the stand, so might have helped the acoustics
We were in the South Stand (I think) - I have no idea if it was specific to where we were but it was painful at times.
Wow! Ok sounds like it was sorted. My ears were ringing a bit but not at that level and the sound was reasonably defined