Coronavirus tests for Scotland’s music fans proposed to help revive live gigs
● A clean bill of health would be needed to get entry
Concert goers in Scotland could be asked to undergo coronavirus tests as part of a drive to bring live events back without social distancing.
The boss of Scotland’s biggest music promoters has revealed talks are under way with the Scottish Government about allowing “full capacity” shows to be staged at the likes of the Hydro and the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow before the end of 2020.
Geoff Ellis, chief executive of DF Concerts and Events, said further talks were due to take place within the next fortnight which could see test events in the autumn and a full roll-out by the end of this year.
He suggested that the model could help bring capacity crowds back safely to major sporting events in Scotland.
Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national clinical director, signalled this week that the first test sports events with fans could be staged in the next few months.
However the Scottish Government has been warned that it will not be financially viable for music and theatre venues to operate with social distancing in place and has been urged to help develop an alternative way of reopening before a coronavirus vaccine is found and rolled out around the world.
The idea emerged on the same day that some of Scotland’s biggest musical stars – including Lewis Capaldi, The Proclaimers, Emeli Sande, Amy Macdonald, Annie Lennox, KT Tunstall, Paolo Nutini and The Proclaimers – threw their weight behind a new campaign to save the industry from collapse. The Let The Music Play campaign wants a “clear, conditional timeline” for the reopening of UK venues without social distancing.
The idea of testing regimes helping to revive industries which say they cannot operate under social distancing restrictions has already been pitched to the UK Government by London-based promoter Melvin Benn. Mr Ellis’s company, which has been staging live events for more than 30 years, runs the King Tut’s venue in Glasgow, the city’s TRNSMT music festival, and indoor concerts across the country.
He said: “We’ve presented a plan to the Scottish Government last week and got a positive reception. We all want there to be a vaccine and that’s obviously the long-term aim, but that’s not going to happen in the immediate future.
“Social distancing just doesn’t work for venues. You could get maybe 4,000 people into the Hydro, but that wouldn’t pay for the show on the stage. If you were sat on the back row you wouldn’t be able to see as no-one would be able to afford to put them in. Something else needs to happen.
“We’re not expecting to be able to open any time soon at full capacity without social distancing. but this plan would be a way of getting people in, as happens with Phantom of the Opera in South Korea just now.
“It’s not completely fullproof, but it’s a way of minimising risk. We’re suggesting that we have a system where if someone has a clean bill of health that would then validate their ticket and they could then go into a concert.
“We obviously need input from scientists and heathcare experts to say: ‘Here is where it falls it down and here’s what we need to do.’ Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can get our teeth into it and refine it. It’s not going to come in tomorrow. But we could maybe be launching this in November.”
“This plan would be a way of getting people in, as happens with Phantom of the Opera in South Korea just now”
GEOFF ELLIS