It’s about time for an update on the construction of Mareel. Those of you that have been following progress will have heard that DITT Construction have had a few set backs in recent months with a couple of subcontractors who were involved in the glazing and the roof, but although progress on the exterior of the building might look slow, activity inside the building is progressing apace.

As the saying goes, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ so we have been round the venue this morning to capture the scene inside to help give you all a sense of progress.

As you can see the building is, with the exception of a few areas, wind and watertight: second fix of electrical works is ongoing; plasterboard is going on the walls and ceilings and specialist Audio Visual cabling is in the process of being installed. For example: all the speaker cables for Cinema 1 and Cinema 2 are now in place.

You may have heard that the opening date has been pushed back to the New Year - at this point we have no firm new completion date, given an outstanding issue with the glazing subcontractor. What we do know is that DITT are making plans just in case the subcontractor can’t return to site and all being well, progress on the glazing will be underway again soon. Meanwhile, as you can see from the pictures great progress is being made inside the building.

Shetland Arts is taking bookings for Mareel from March 2012 onwards and will fill dates prior to then when a firm opening date is known. The venue already has a number of high profile events booked, so if you want to use the venue do get in touch on (01595) 743843 for an informal chat and a site visit.

For more information, video and images regards Mareel go to the Shetland Arts Mareel page.