Music Week (05/26/20) Hanley, James

The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) has raised issues over the effect social distancing could have on the night time economy and events sector, and an entertainment and events task force is being organized to develop advice and guidance on the reopening of cultural venues across Britain. The NTIA cautioned about unresolved matters on the government's expectations in terms of public health measures and whether businesses will be unworkable under anticipated conditions. "We don't want to open and put people at risk, and the last thing anyone wants is for us to re-engage the market for us to be closed two to three weeks later following another spike in transmission and deaths," said NTIA CEO Michael Kill. Village Underground & EartH's Katharine Khan explained that keeping venues operational under the reduced capacities demanded by social distancing will not cover her company's overhead, and "we will need to find something else to do with the venue, either instead of running socially distanced events, or alongside them, otherwise we won't exist by 2022." Studio 338's Dan Perrin added that many of his company's overheads are fixed and cannot be scaled to make lower capacities viable. This threatens to be disastrous when combined with the low likelihood that public confidence in worry-free social gatherings will return to normal after the pandemic. Perrin argued that reintroduction of live events should be gradual, and the government should "repay our support by protecting us until it is safe to reopen in a way which will bring London's music scene bursting back into life rather than seeing all of the heritage and culture we are so famous for become a victim of the virus."

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