Pollstar (08/14/20) Gottfried, Gideon
Indoor music venues in Britain reopened at capacities on Aug. 15 to ensure people can maintain mandated social distancing standards, following a two-week postponement of the original July 31 reopening. Grassroots venues are not as lucky, with the U.K. and other governments designating singing, dancing and human closeness high-risk activities amid the coronavirus pandemic, as well as the financial inability to experiment with different reopening scenarios and constraints surrounding the layout of premises. "Despite the challenges ... we broadly welcome this progress towards the return of live music," stated the U.K.'s Music Venue Trust. "If gigs are going to return in stages, which is the government plan, then we have reached stage 4 of that plan and can begin to imagine that stage 5, real gigs at real venues, might be achievable in the foreseeable future." Eventbrite took advantage of the government announcement to promote personalized online tickets, which the company claimed could help with "potential tracking and tracing efforts after an event has ended." Meanwhile, Switzerland announced that live events with more than 1,000 attendees would be permitted again from October, albeit under rigorous safety measures. Swiss promoter Gadget is already holding concerts with up to 1,000 guests.
Read the full story from Pollstar.