Leadership / 03.09.22
Toronto Venues Tread Carefully Into Full Capacity Events
Access Staff
Toronto Star (Canada) (03/04/22) Krewen, Nick
Live venues in Toronto, Canada, are taking a cautious approach as pandemic-driven restrictions on full-capacity crowds are lifted. Although he appreciates this development, Toronto club owner Shaun Bowring would have preferred more of a heads-up from Ontario's government. The mask mandate remains for venues, while the mandatory vaccine passport requirement is no longer in force. "Some of our contracts say that a vaccine passport is in effect and, in those cases, the audience will be checked," Bowring said. "I think for the confidence of the audience that bought tickets in advance for these shows we are gonna want to keep that in place." Lisa Zbitnew, who co-owns the Phoenix Concert Hall in Toronto and the Bronson Center in Ottawa, called assessing the public's response the next step on the road to recovery. "We're going to have to operate with an eye on margin because what used to be a standard attrition of maybe 10% of people not showing up for a show — even in that brief six weeks that we were open — was closer to 20% or 25%. For the short term, we're gonna have to look at operating with fewer people." Canadian Live Music Association CEO Erin Benjamin expects venues to prioritize public health when operating their establishments, while technology will also be utilized to keep things like ticket sales and other documentation digital.
Read the full story from the Toronto Star (Canada).
Tags: News , Leadership , COVID-19 , Coronavirus