How Scarborough landed Britney

Peter Taylor, of Cuffe and Taylor, said more big-name acts would follow the Pop Princess to the town after the announcement on Tuesday of her show at the OAT, which sent social media into meltdown.

Britney will play the first gig of her UK tour at the 8,500- capacity North Bay venue on August 17 when she brings her Las Vegas ‘Piece of Me’ tour to Europe. Mr Taylor told The Scarborough News: “This is just the start, we have some acts equal to this coming up.”

He said that the groundworkfor the announcement had been laid by two trips to Los Angeles to meet with Britney’s management in January and November, last year.

“It was a case of selling them on the venue so we described it as ‘The Hollywood Bowl of Yorkshire’.

“They all laughed but then they saw the pictures and said ‘yeah it is like the Hollywood Bowl’ so that gave them a frame of reference.

“When we finally got the ‘yes’ we were ecstatic.

“We’ve had some very big acts in the past, but to get an American superstar like Britney to kick off her British tour at the Open Air Theatre is massive for us.

“There is no other venue like it. The big arenas are basically all the same on the inside and we have something unique to offer in Scarborough.

“We got Noel Gallagher last year and if you look at his Instagram feed it is just pictures from Scarborough. The acts love playing here.

“Getting Britney gives us more exposure to bring more acts like her over to Scarborough – I have many names left on my wishlist yet.”

The news was greeted by shock across social media.

“I knew it would cause a stir but it was even bigger than I thought,” added Mr Taylor.

“There was a big risk to us financially bringing Britney across but I already think it was worth it.

“Hopefully people will travel from all around and other businesses in Scarborough, hotels, guest houses, restaurants, will see the benefit.”

Tickets for Britney Spears at Scarborough OAT go on sale at 10am on Saturday January 27 via www.ticketmaster.co.uk and www.scarboroughopenairtheatre.com or in person from Scarborough Open Air Theatre Box Office (01723) 818111 and the Discover Yorkshire Coast Tourism Bureau (01723) 383636.