"Independent", a city centre nightclub/music venue, satisfies underground music lovers, having previously played host to Keane, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, Maxïmo Park and Snow Patrol when they were largely unknown. More recently, Doves and Tim Burgess have performed DJ sets on club nights, and in summer 2007 the club hosted gigs from established bands such as The Zutons and The Maccabees. The Manor Quay, the students' union on the campus of the University of Sunderland has also hosted the Arctic Monkeys, Maxïmo Park, 911, the Levellers and Girls Aloud in the past three years.
Clint Boon sometimes deejays in indie venue "Ku Club", and the Bluetones did a set there in 2006.
“CoSMOS”, the City of Sunderland Millennium Orchestral Society’’ was set up in 2000 to mark the millennium.
The Sunderland Empire Theatre, opened in 1907, is the largest theatre in the North East. It reopened in December 2004, following a big redevelopment, making the stage bigger. Now it can stage West End shows such as "Miss Saigon", "Starlight Express" and "My Fair Lady". The Empire is the only theatre between Leeds and Glasgow big enough to put on such shows.
The Birmingham Royal Ballet have a season at the Sunderland Empire every year, and it is thought of as the company's north-east home.
The Royalty Theatre is the home to the (amateur) Royalty Theatre group who also put on a number of low-budget productions throughout the year. Well-known movie producer David Parfitt belonged to this company before achieving worldwide fame.
Each year on the last weekend in July, the city hosts the Sunderland International Airshow. It takes place along the sea front at Roker and Seaburn, and is attended by over 1.2 million people annually. It is the largest free airshow in Europe.
Sunderland also hosts the free International Festival of Kites, Music and Dance, which attracts kite-makers from around the world to Northumbria Playing Fields, Washington.
Every year, the city hosts a large Remembrance Day memorial, believed to be the largest in the UK outside of London.
HMS Ocean, a Helicopter Landing Ship is Sunderland's adopted Royal Navy ship. The crew of HMS Ocean regularly visit the city.
At Christmas, Sunderland has a German market in the city centre selling German-made wooden goods, and German food. It also hosts a large ice rink in Mowbray Park, which is part of the wider, regional North East Winter Festival.
Traditional attractions for visitors to Sunderland include Penshaw Monument, the Souter Lighthouse (the first electrically powered lighthouse in the world), the 15th century Hylton Castle, the Wildfowl park in Washington, and the beaches of Roker and Seaburn.
The National Glass Centre opened in 1998, reflecting Sunderland's distinguished history of glass-making. The centre has never been as successful as hoped.
Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, on Borough Road, was the first publically funded museum in the country outside London. It was opened by Ulysses S. Grant shortly after he stopped being US President. The museum has a big collection of the locally produced Sunderland Lustreware pottery. The new City Library Arts Centre, on Fawcett Street, also houses the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art.
The City of Sunderland has been commended several times on its commitment to preserving its natural environment. Sunderland has won awards from the Britain in Bloom group in 1993, 1997 and 2000.
Sunderland is one of the most deprived cities in the North of England. 11 of the 25 wards featuring in the list of the 2000 most deprived wards in England. The most deprived areas are Southwick to the north of the river and Thorney Close to the south - both with chronic levels of unemployment, although the city is performing better than the North East as a whole.
Once called the "Greatest Shipbuilding Town in the World", ships were built on the Wear from at least 1346 onwards. The Port of Sunderland was expanded in the 1850s when the Hudsons Dock were built for the River Wear Commissioners. Robert Stephenson helped the engineers.
Competition from overseas caused a downturn in demand for Sunderland built ships toward the end of the twentieth century. The last shipyard in Sunderland closed in 1988.
Sunderland, part of the Durham coalfield, has a coal-mining heritage that dates back centuries. At the peak in 1923, 170,000 miners were employed in County Durham alone, as labourers from all over Britain, including many from Scotland and Ireland, entered the region. As demand for coal fell after World War II, mines began to close across the region, causing mass unemployment. The last coal mine closed in 1994. The site of the last coal mine, Wearmouth Colliery, is now the Stadium of Light, and a miner's Stephenson lamp monument stands outside of the ground to honour the heritage of the site.
Glass has been made in Sunderland for around 1,500 years. But overseas competition has forced the closure of all of Sunderland's glass-making factories. Corning Glass Works was one of the last. It was in Sunderland for 120 years, until 31 March 2007
Vaux Breweries was established in the town centre in the 1880s and for 110 years was a major employer. The brewery was finally closed in July 1999. Vaux in Sunderland and Wards Brewing Company in Sheffield had been part of the Vaux Group, when both breweries closed the group started to concentrate on its hotels which were in The Swallow Group. In the autumn of 2000 even this was taken over by Whitbread PLC.
Sunderland's economy began to get better after the 1980s.
The giant Nissan factory moved in, and new service industries arrived. Doxford International Business Park, in the south west of the city, has attracted a host of national and international companies.
The former shipyard areas along the River Wear have also been transformed. Instead of the old industry new developments have been built, including:
Sunderland Corporation's massive post-war housing estate developments, such as Farringdon, Pennywell, Grindon, Hylton Red House, Hylton Castle, Thorney Close and Town End Farm, together with earlier developments, have all passed into the ownership of Gentoo (once caleed Sunderland Housing Group), a private company and a "Registered Social Landlord". Since the transfer in 2000 there have been a lot of improvements to the quality of social housing in the city.
The central business district of Sunderland has also been redeveloped and improveed. In 2000, The Bridges shopping centre was extended to attract national chain stores. In November 2004, after several years with no cinema, a Cineworld multiplex opened in the new River Quarter, an entertainment complex towards the east of the City Centre. The Cinema was taken over by the Empire Multiplex Cinema Company in mid 2006. The previous ABC Cinema, situated on the corner of Park Lane and Holmeside, had been derelict for a number of years until it reopened late in 2005 as The Point, with three bars and the Union nightclub.
The arrival of Roy Keane as Sunderland AFC's new manager in August 2006 has had a massive impact in Sunderland's once limited tourism industry. Keane has proved a big pull for the city in terms of attracting tourists to Sunderland, with the Tourism Office reporting a dramatic rise in the number of football fans coming to the city "mentioning his name" as early as October 2006, just six weeks after Keane's appointment as manager. Airline Ryanair, moreover, recorded a 10% increase in passenger numbers travelling to Newcastle Airport on Fridays before a Sunderland home game, some 600 more than on other Fridays. The Tourism Office believes Keane's attachment to the city is causing a knock-on effect on local restaurants, bars and attractions in that more tourists are "making a weekend of it" after watching the football.