O2 Academy Birmingham

O2 Academy Birmingham is a music venue located in Birmingham, West Midlands, England.

Venue
The original O$2$ Academy Birmingham was located at Dale End (the venue is now known as Forum Birmingham). In September 2009, the O2 Academy moved to the site of the former Dome II Nightclub located on Horsefair, Bristol Street. The decision to move to a brand new venue was decided twofold. The former venue was unsuitable for the needs of a modern music venue and the building complex it resided in, along with the Oasis Centre above, was scheduled for demolition as part of a project called Martineau Galleries.

At the new venue in Bristol Street, local band Editors headlined the opening night followed by further gigs the following nights by The Twang, The Streets and Ocean Colour Scene. For these gigs, commemorative wristbands were given out as part of a marketing campaign by members of the marketing team known as O$2$ angels.

Like the former Academy venue, the new venue has a multi-room operation with the main room having a capacity of 3,009 (of which there is a dedicated 600 capacity seated area) and two other rooms, the O$2$ Academy 2 with 600 and O$2$ Academy 3 with 250. However, in an improvement to the Dale End site, the new venue was designed to allow all three venues to be in use at the same time. A dedicated queuing system and box office is also in operation for each room. Therefore, the venue has a full capacity of 3,859.

To coincide with the launch of the Bristol Street venue, the club night Propaganda moved from the Gatecrasher venue in Birmingham to the Academy on Friday 18 September 2009. This is now a club night spread over all three academy rooms, playing a variety of indie/pop music. Subculture, a well known metal/rock club which was hosted at the Dale End Academy, moved to the new venue on 26 September 2009.

Arenas
The O2 Academy Birmingham has three performance areas.

Main room
The main room, simply known as the Academy is by far the largest performance area in the complex, with a total capacity of 3,009 of which 2,409 is standing room in the stalls. Above the main stalls there is a tiered-seated balcony with a capacity of 600. This area has its own entrance, bar, toilets and cloakroom facilities.

Academy 2
Academy 2 is a smaller room which caters for audiences of up to 600. In the Academy 2 there is standing room only, although there is a raised disabled viewing area.

Academy 3
Academy 3 is the smallest of the three stages, with a total all-standing capacity of 250.