The Spotlight Hospitality Experience at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena – Dinner at the New Restaurant and Seeing Little Mix

Recently we got to go for a brilliant evening out, where we treated like VIPs with the Hospitality Experience and got to try out the new Spotlight Restaurant and bar on the top level of Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena, and watch Little Mix perform on their LM5 tour from the comfort of a hospitality suite.

The Spotlight Hospitality Experience includes a meal with drinks plus prime seats in the Arena for the show. Spotlight is a 130-seater restaurant with floor to ceiling views of the city skyline. It’s a lovely and modern restaurant and is open for all events, Nottingham Panther’s games as well as for private hire.

We were treated to a delicious two-course meal, alongside gin and tonics (water for Ava!) and there was a really nice atmosphere in the restaurant as everyone was excited for the performance. The menu available at Spotlight changes depending on what the event is — which I think is pretty cool — so for example, as we were there to see Little Mix, there was a family-friendly menu with burgers, fish fingers and chips and chicken, and when Liam Gallagher is performing soon the menu consists of things like pies!

I like the idea of a changing menu and despite us having a menu suitable for children it was still great for adults too, and we all really enjoyed our meals and desserts, and it was lovely knowing that the evening wasn’t over after our meal and we still had the show to watch!

Spotlight has been created following a major reconfiguration of the Arena’s level 4 hospitality facilities which also includes a relaxed bar and lounge area and a new state-of-the-art kitchen. Spotlight, which has replaced the Platinum Suite restaurant previously enjoyed by hospitality guests, covers a much bigger area than before, and thanks to the brand-new kitchen facilities, the in-house catering team are able to offer a much wider range of menu options, such as butter-fried duck eggs with sauté black pudding (yum!), 28-day hung fillet steaks and vegan ‘beyond burgers’ with various toppings.

The new Spotlight restaurant is available to event guests who book a Spotlight Hospitality Experience which includes premium show seats and also to Annual Executive Suite holders who want to enhance their time at the Arena. For Nottingham Panther’s matches and guests with standard tickets for selected events, walk-up tables are available to those who want to enjoy a premium dining experience before an event. It is also available to hire for private parties and events.

After we had finished our meal and drinks we were guided along the top floor through to our premium seats in one of the boxes. We were really high up and it was nice having our own area, along with a few others, where we could move about, dance, or sit on a stool at a table with a drink if we wanted to. We certainly weren’t close to the stage but it was great being so high up and we could see really well. It was also brilliant having someone come around regularly (but not too regularly) to take any drink or food orders we had! It felt very special to be watching Little Mix perform and be waited on like that and it was a really lovely treat.

Ava and I love Little Mix and we are always singing and dancing around to their songs at home, so it was amazing to be able to take Ava to her first concert (and my first one in years and years!) and watch them perform together. She was so excited and it was lovely seeing her face as we entered the box and she saw how high up we were and how big the whole place was. It was a great view to have of the whole arena and it was pretty cool seeing all of the flashing lights from all of the wand-type things the kids had as the lights went down.

It was a great experience to be able to watch the performance from a box and I don’t think it’s one that Ava will forget. Little Mix were great and it was so much fun singing and dancing to all of our favourite songs. Ava would hear the start of one of her favourites and get all excited and tell me what it was and it was so cute.

Little Mix performed songs from their new album LM5, like Women Like Me and my current favourite, Wasabi, as well as all of their best hits, like Touch, Shout Out to My Ex, Black Magic, Secret Love Song and lots more. The girls made it really fun and at one point Jesy and Perrie couldn’t sing for laughing — and I really liked that — I like getting to see their personalities a bit in a performance rather than everything being completely perfect. They really put on a great show, and we had a brilliant time.

It did take me a little while to think about whether I was happy to take Ava (who’s almost 8) to see the band, as I had read lots of stuff about them being too raunchy, and obviously their songs can have rather sexual lyrics! I’d read lots of different opinions online, but I decided that she hears the songs anyway (even at school), she loves them, she really doesn’t notice or even know what the sex parts of the song mean, and I do think that they are strong, talented independent women (throw your hands up at me!) so in my opinion they actually set a good example to young girls. And actually I didn’t notice their outfits being too raunchy either, whatever ‘too’ raunchy means, plus they are just costumes to perform in.

Booking the Spotlight Hospitality Package really makes such a special treat — it is such a great experience and one you won’t forget easily. It would make an amazing gift for someone for Christmas or a special occasion, where they get to have a lovely meal and a drink and then see someone they love perform. We had a brilliant night.

The Spotlight Hospitality Package at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena is open for all concerts and events and customers are advised to book in advance as packages for some of the major shows are already sold out. To book a Spotlight Hospitality Experience, which will include a meal with drinks plus prime seats in the Arena for the show, visit Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena.

We were given tickets for the Motorpoint Arena’s Spotlight Hospitality Package but all words and opinions are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.