Worst Case Scenario
AT the moment, despite looking ahead to how they may approach a phased reopening, many venues in Wales will not be able to do so at all without some sort of financial assistance.
Even if they were to get the goahead to reopen from a safety perspective, it simply would not be possible for many of them from a financial standpoint.
With this being the case, many may need to stay closed for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t particularly want to reopen until we can reopen at full capacity and I think the Government should be looking at sector-specific support,” said Sam Dabb, who runs Le Pub in Newport city centre.
Sam is Welsh co-coordinator at the Music Venue Trust, the organisation behind the letter to the UK Government.
Research carried out by the trust in Wales has found that, within the music venue sector in Wales, the cost to reopen with two metres of social distancing would be more than £10m, and to reopen at one metre would be £6.6m.
“We’re in a position where... I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s incredibly difficult to trade while there’s social distancing in place. Even if it were possible, it’s hugely unlikely to be financially viable,” said Gary.
Venues across Wales have made it clear that without financial assistance in some form, many of them will not make it through the pandemic.
“It will get to the point where we’ve burnt through everything and we’ve used all of our resources,” said Gary.
“And we’ll be faced at some point inevitably with closure which I imagine, without any intervention, would be some time around December to January.”
The real worry across Wales and the rest of the UK is that, by the time it is safe for customers to return to bars and venues, many of them may have already disappeared.
“I don’t think by any means they should remove distancing; if that’s what science says then we need to keep it, and keeping customers and staff safe is our number one priority,” said Sam.
“But I think we need to look at the fact that certain business cannot financially survive under those conditions, and mothball the entire music venue sector until November.”