Northern Ireland’s Concert Halls, Theatres and Conference Venues welcome the relaxation on social distancing agreed by the NI Executive, which will allow full capacity indoor seated events with appropriate mitigations to resume from 30th September.
The sector has effectively been closed since March 2020. Tonight’s announcement will allow many venues to trade normally, and a substantial number of technical staff, artists and many others to be brought back to work. Many scheduled concerts and events which had been in danger of cancellation or reschedule can now go ahead as planned.
Standing concert events and nightclubs remain closed, and will be discussed at the NI Executive’s next meeting on October 7th, when all remaining restrictions will be considered.
Joe Dougan of The Limelight in Belfast commented: “We welcome the NI Executive’s decision to remove Social Distancing for indoor seated venues, – this is a progressive step which will enable many businesses to get back on their feet, and many staff members to return to work. We look forward to the next NI Executive discussion on the matter on October 7th, in the hope that the final remaining restrictions on indoor events will be relaxed.”
