Freedom come, freedom go
Although Monday 19th July marked Freedom Day in England, for many it’s just a transfer of responsibilities. Most of the rules are not now enforced or mandated by Government, just switched to companies or individuals to create their own interpretations. Alighting at this website you’re likely to be most interested in how this can impact upon events, gigs and venues, unfortunately there is no absolute clarity.
For music venues in particular there are likely to be any number of stakeholders, all hoping to impose their own restrictions – from promoters, agents and artists to sponsors, licensing bodies and authorities. What this can mean, if we’re not careful, is that gigs within the same venue might be subject to different levels of control and restriction. Until September of course, when the Govt wants to impose a no-entry unless double-jabbed plan.
The immediate response is to celebrate reopening, albeit cautiously. No venue, event, promoter, or artist wants to find themself back in an extended lockdown, ever again. Whatever metaphorical or administrative mountain we must climb to be back in work and providing entertainment, we’re obviously going to do it.
Initially it looked like reopening during the rapid spread of the Delta variant would see most caught in a pincer movement with staff and performers side-lined, locked down by default. The steady decline of infection though has helped to calm fears and for every cautious punter there are many more who are eager to be on the dancefloor and in the moshpit again.
Our next hurdle is inevitably going to become the Covid Passport or Vaccine Pass. I’m baffled that this has become a political football when its imposition was such an inevitability that even the barely educated (i.e. me) were writing about it over 10 months ago and again at the end of 2020.
Clambering out of Covid has been a series of delays and missed opportunities, many of which are a mystery to those of us who know and acknowledge that it’s an airborne virus. Consequently, a high crowd density in an enclosed space with poor air circulation provides a greater level of risk. The Govt’s latest response to this is that those attending ‘nightclubs’ will need vaccine passes, a motion then bafflingly rumoured to be extended to football stadiums – although conveniently long after Euro 2020 departed our shores. All venue owners must anticipate that this is coming their way and plan accordingly, whilst also managing their own levels of risk.
Fortunately for many there are a wealth of resources provided by the likes of the Music Venue Trust whose work has been exemplary throughout this process. Even without their campaigning and lobbying, their guide to reopening safely is worth the membership fee on its own. It remains something of a mystery though as to why (almost 2 years into this) there’s no definitive or legal advice on ventilation or financial support to do our own work.
As ever we cannot rely on others to help, we must ensure that we’re united against contracts that try to enforce fees when shows are postponed due to Covid, and official bodies that change their minds and regulations every few hours. We also have to kick back against all venues and events being categorised as being the same – they are not. A jazz or classical show in a large airy auditorium is entirely different from a punk gig in a 300 cap club with a low ceiling. The prevarications hint at rules that were relaxed not because of a desire to do so, more that they couldn’t hold us back any longer and didn’t want to offer further fiscal support. The ongoing reluctance to support or endorse any insurance package speaks clearly to the latter point.
Shows and touring are going to be distinctly home-grown for a while, there are few tours that can sustain having cast and crew in quarantine and no signs that exemptions will be offered. With differing laws across countries, the international mega-star tour will be unworkable until 2022 at the earliest. And when 2022 dawns its anticipated that we’ll have the opposite problem, too many shows and saturation for the market and fans.
We also rely on the fans to protect each other which is inherently risky. If you have been locked down for months and have tickets to see one of your favourite acts, are you going to act responsibly even if you feel a bit ill in the days before the show? People are selfish and testing/tracking is currently the only way to ensure the safety of other gig attendees, venue staff and the artists themselves. Artists are going to want protection – witness Fontaines DC having to withdraw from Latitude because they’d registered a positive result, possibly contracted whilst playing a smaller show. Very few are going to take that risk in future.
No-one said it would be easy, it never has been. Maintaining an awareness of the different scenarios and their likely impact on your market has never been more important. Think local, act global and let’s try and put the fun in freedom. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, 'Let's be careful out there'.
Footnotes -
Government guidance on working safely during coronavirus for events and attractions
Jul 29: Although Music Week believes that Government relaxation of rules for vaccinated travellers is good news for the industry, it remains the fact that it would have to be extended Europe wide (at least) for agents/managers to believe that global touring is viable again. The story includes QOTSA pulling out of Reading/Leeds which proves that point.
The future’s so bright…..
Events at the end of the pandemic
By mid-February I’d read so many contradictory reports and surveys about how to resume live events and concerts that I’d begun to doubt if we’d ever be able to open a venue again.
An example of the conflict is summed up in two German studies – one claimed that the transmission risk at indoor concerts was negligible, provided that good ventilation, social distancing and face masks were in use
At the same time the Germans were celebrating this ‘win’, another report suggested that the risk of aerosol spread was reckoned to be higher if you sing in certain languages, like, er, German.
Promoters and venues were already well aware that the risk factors are hugely dependent on a number of issues, from type of venue to genre/style of show. A seated, socially distanced performance in an airy, high-ceilinged hall would be entirely different to a standing gig in a sweaty basement. The trouble was that governments and licensing bodies were insistent upon treating everything the same.
So, whilst we could have some hope that cultural events were safer than schools there was little public clamour to test that proposition. Yet in the UK, after months of barely acknowledging that the sector exists, we were finally given a glimmer of hope and, astonishingly, actual dates. It looked like a plan, which was astounding for all those who had been asking for evidence of one since before Christmas.
Naturally the dates came with caveats, but they were enough for some festivals to go on-sale and sell out, almost before the PM had stopped speaking. The following week produced future amazement as industry experts like the Music Venue Trust noted that the plan looked to be based on data rather than guesswork. The predicted roll out of the vaccine and continuing expected fall in infection rates make these dates likely to become a reality.
Whilst I see few people clamouring to hit the May deadline for restricted capacities, July and beyond look like reasonable expectations. The industry will have its own caveats of course, the most notable being insurance. Where EU governments and some others have stepped into the void where commercial firms fear not tread, UK authorities are more tight-lipped. Perhaps the upcoming budget will give us a better steer, but I fear the chancellor is keener to tighten the purse strings than keep the coffers open.
Talent may be another thorny issue in 2021. The UK may relax but that possibility seems unlikely across Europe. If you’re an international artist and dependent on the economies of scale that multiple shows offer, flying in for one or two UK shows might not cut it. That’s if you’re even able to escape your own country’s restrictions.
On that basis the future looks more optimistic, as long as you like British artists. Frankly, since everyone seems to be straining at the leash to be released, this looks to be less of an issue than it normally would be. New UK acts may thrive on those festival slots that may previously not have been available and, as Brexit & Covid restrict their ambitions, popularity may well have to start at home. Bring it on.
Passport to Freedom
The road to recovery for live events
This is Christmas, what have you done?
For most of us in events and subsidiary industries, the answer for 2020 is likely ‘not enough’. Many of us started the year well before seeing all the work crumble and disappear in March.
For my part I was in Melbourne working on the first event in a planned series of concerts following the F1 circus into different countries. It was ambitious but we’d negotiated with promoters, commercial partners and venues worldwide; everything looked great. We’d planned and designed our bespoke stage with environmentally friendly touring in mind, we even built it ready for event one – March 13 & 14, Albert Park. On Friday March 13th that was cancelled and, as we dismantled it, we assembled in production offices and bars and watched our summer shows tumble one by one.
Everyone has a similar story to tell. The great bonfire of the live events industry, spring and summer 2020. Many of us were optimistic that some of the later summer events might be rescued and that by the time of peak touring, Oct-Dec, we’d be back to normal. It hasn’t happened and even the 2020 shows that were pushed into corresponding time slots for 2021 are looking dubious. Some of this may depend on your location but, from a UK perspective, there’s little cause for optimism.
Whether large-scale touring can resume, with giant productions being hauled across continents, seems doubtful. As I scribble these words many borders to the UK are closed and lorries litter the M20 and Kent countryside. The solution that they’re suggesting for that problem is the only one likely to rescue the 2021 festival season: testing.
I originally wrote of this a few months ago, since when the UK Government has rolled out wider, general testing for cities such as Liverpool and schools in London. There remain some doubts about the reliability of the ‘quicker’, lateral flow or lamp tests but the standard PCR is highly regarded, and results can, in some cases, be produced in under 2 hours. A promoter’s willingness to hand over half his festival site to become a testing facility is unlikely but, given the pace of vaccine roll-out in the UK, there may be few other options to save 2021.
Whether the Govt will make generalised testing more available in the future months is open to question. There’s no doubt they’d have to sign off on any plans to resurrect live events and give substantial reassurance of no further instantaneous tier systems. One potential route is for Governments to provide ‘insurance’ to promoters as none will be available/affordable commercially. Testing and vaccination go hand in hand towards greater immunity and a combination is essential for us to be able to move forward.
There’s been a lot of kick-back against a ‘Covid passport’ for some justifiable civil liberty issues, but whatever name it goes under there seems little chance that artists, crew or audience will be allowed to stage or attend large capacity events without a recent clear test or proof of vaccination. The sooner we start to plan for this eventuality the better state we’ll be in. The campaign to save 2021’s concerts has started, who’s listening?
Footnote.
This is always going to be a rapidly evolving scenario. The US view has them banking on mass vaccination and a return to live by September:
The vaccination prospect seems optimistic and September feels like a very long way away. Also, how will you know who’s had it?
The Guardian reported of the slow pace of British vaccination which, at current rate, would take about 5 years to cover the country.
We should have additional reservations over how similar industries have been treated. The travel industry lobbied for testing and clearance to travel for months with apparent apathy from the Government. Then the policy was dumped on them with very little notice or detail on execution.