Two metre social distancing ‘will make most events unviable’, operators warn
Scotland’s arenas, concert halls and comedy clubs will be forced to impose two metre social distancing if they want to reopen - despite warnings that the vast majority of events will be totally unviable.
Festivals, sports stadia and conferences will also be affected by the strict rule, which is set out in newly-published guidelines from the scottish government, which has allowed pubs and restaurants to reopen with one metre social distancing in place. Venues in England are due to open next month with one metre social distancing in place, with a provisional date of 21 June set for the lifting of all restrictions.
Every venue in Scotland will have to agree a crowd capacity in advance with their local authority under the new rules, which critics say will mean venues facing having their audience capacities cut by as much as 90 per cent.
The two metre rule for all live entertainment has been confirmed after the Scottish music industry warned it was on the “brink of collapse” due to a lack of support from the Scottish Government.
Promoters, venue operators, festival organisers and agents have warned that more than 1000 jobs are at risk due to the government’s failure to set out a “meaningful road map” to recovery.
The new guidance is intended to cover all indoor and outdoor
events staged from 17 May, the official reopening date for venues which were forced to shut down last March.
Under the latest guidance from the Scottish Government, social distancing exceptions will only be made for “internationally significant flagship events.”
However the new rules do
allowfor“medium”sizedevents for up to 5000 people to be agreed by local authorities over the summer, while bigger events may be referred to the government “for consideration in the wider context of the pandemic.”
The government has already given the green light to European Championship football
matches to go ahead at Hampden in June, while the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is hoping to go ahead at just over half its normal capacity.
Festivals due to take place laterintheyearincludedounethe Rabbit Hole in Cardross, the Edinburgh International Festivalandfringe,fringebythesea in North Berwick, The Gathering
in Inverness and TRNSMT in Glasgow.
Under Scotland’s latest route map out of lockdown restrictions, which was revealed a week ago, events for audiences of up to 400 indoors and 2000 outdoors are envisaged by the end of June.
They state: "The capacity of theatres, concert halls, music venues, comedy clubs, sports stadiums and grounds, museums and galleries and conference centres is subject to two metre physical distancing requirements. Discussions on capacity numbers should take placebetweenthelocalauthority and venue.”