Is Gig Drought End In Sight?

Promoter suggests Easter return.

Concert promoter Stuart Galbraith, the boss of Kilimanjaro Live, has earmarked a date as a possible target for the return of full-capacity live gigs. “The date that we should be pushing for is April 8, ” he told Music Week, “because it’s immediately after Easter and I think the government should find that acceptable – it will fit in with political and society agendas. Being midweek, it’s not a date you’re going to see people go crazy on, like a Saturday. We could ease into it.”

However, some less optimistic industry experts predict that while next year’s summer festivals could be viable, they view the following spring as more realistic.

Since the last issue of Classic Rock, more than 1,300 theatres, music venues, galleries, festivals, museums and other cultural organisations were told they would receive a segment of a government’s Culture Recovery Fund of £257 million. However, a new report predicts that almost 170,000 UK live-sector jobs are likely to be lost by the end of this year. This figure represents almost half of the sector’s full-time workforce. An additional 144,000 ‘full-time equivalent’ jobs will also vanish.