SOME of the biggest names in music and comedy could be heading to Kendal as Lakes Leisure and the Brewery Arts Centre join forces.

A new partnership between the two businesses means the Brewery will book and run events at the leisure centre — its Westmorland Hall has triple the capacity of its own premises — on a profit share basis.

For Lakes Leisure, the move is the latest in a number of schemes devised by bosses to plug the gap left by a 46 per cent loss in public funding.

Bosses behind the partnership said bands like Mumford and Sons, who recently played at the Sands Centre in Carlisle, could now be attracted to Kendal.

Popular comedian Jimmy Carr is already booked to appear at the leisure centre as part of the Brewery’s Freerange Comedy Festival this month, and they said there would be many more stars following in his footsteps.

Events including Kendal Mountain Festival and the Lakes International Comic Art Festival could also grow significantly in coming years as venue space is expanded.

Derek Jones, Business and Partnership Development Manager at Lakes Leisure, said: “The partnership with the Brewery is another strand of what we have been trying to do to increase participation.

“After losing the funding, it is a way of filling the gap but also to add even more services and activities.

“This should really put Kendal on the map as we organise bigger events. We have recognised that we don’t need to be in competition with the Brewery and they have all the arts and leisure contacts, as well as the marketing and technical resources.”

Previous acts at the leisure centre have included Lenny Henry, Peter Kay and the Royal, Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestras.

“But that’s over the last 10 years,” Mr Jones added. “And we had to fight very hard to get them in.”

The capacity of the Malt Room at the Brewery, which hosts music and comedy gigs, is 290 seated and 400 standing while its theatre can fit 350.

At the leisure centre, there is room for a seated audience of 900 and 1,200 standing.

Richard Foster, Chief Executive of the Brewery Arts Centre, said the partnership was an ‘ideal way to more forward’. “As funding gets harder to come by, it is great to be a part of putting on events on a completely different scale,” he said.

“We can organise performances and acts we wouldn’t have been able to bring to the Brewery, be it comedy, theatre, dance, music — a whole range of different things.”

Chairman of the Lakes Leisure Trust Rodger Read said: “This is an opportunity to look at what else we can do across South Lakeland at our other leisure facilities and in conjunction with local councils.

“Really this is something that should have happened a long time ago, but of course you need both sides to make it work and it is great that it is happening now.”