The Music Venue Trust (MVT) has announced a new campaign to encourage music fans to enjoy live music in safe environments by supporting their local grassroots music venues.
A statement from the Trust says:
“Given the current data and the guidance from government, which continues to allow the staging of live music events, the #golocal campaign puts the emphasis on enjoying live music in a safe environment by urging music fans to visit local grassroots music venues, avoiding mass transport and large crowds of people.
“From the very beginning of this pandemic MVT has led the way in helping the grassroots music community provide safe environments to stage live music events and continues to prioritize the health and wellbeing of audiences, venue staff, artists, and support crew.”
#golocal is the latest in a series of campaigns that MVT have implemented to help reopen every venue safely.
The Trust’s statement continues:
“Grassroots music venues are continuing to offer a vibrant programme of live music events such as the ‘The National Lottery’s Revive Live Tour’ which begins this month and are providing music fans with an ideal opportunity to support those venues, artists and their support crew in environments, which have the experience and protocols in place to keep everyone involved safe.
Mark Dayvd, CEO of MVT, added:
“From day one of this crisis we have liaised directly with government and medical experts and have been at the heart of the discussions around how to stage responsible live music events and reopen every venue safely.
“We continue to offer full support and guidance to the grassroots music venue sector and with them have implemented numerous ground-breaking initiatives such as the #TakeATest campaign to protect the health of audiences, artists, crew and venue staff, whose wellbeing has always been and remains our number one concern.
“It is clear to us, given the current data available to us, that the safest way to enjoy live music at present is to do so at a local level, avoiding mass transport and large crowds of people.
We see this difficult and uncertain period as an opportunity to put the focus firmly back on local music venues and to encourage people to investigate the many amazing opportunities to safely experience live music within their own communities.”
Different rules on the staging of live gigs continue to be applied in different parts of the Ünited Kingdom. While live gigs can go ahead in England more or less without any restrictions, most venues in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales remain closed, or faced with heavy regulation, such as no standing events, which continue to make the staging of gigs problematic at the least and impossible at the worst.