Nightclubs in Scotland are to close for at least three weeks from 27 December https://t.co/K99UtEcOGJ

— BBC Scotland News (@BBCScotlandNews) December 23, 2021

Public Health Scotland announced yesterday that there were 22,000 estimated cases of the Omicron variant as of December 19^th, spurring on the decision to close nightclubs. It was originally intended for nightclubs to enforce 1 metre social distancing, however with the rapidly climbing case numbers, it seems wise to enforce temporary closures.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney has stated, according to BBC News, that financial aid will be made available in order to keep nightclubs afloat during this time, and that they will have the option to stay open providing they cancel their typical proceedings and effectively operate as bars with physical distancing. Swinney said: “We consider that closure in regulations, combined with financial support, may reduce losses and help these businesses weather what we hope will be a short period until they are able to operate normally again.”

Despite the promise of funding to supplement the inevitable financial losses that these venues will incur, there has been much concern how this will set back nightclubs and music venues. The Scottish Conservatives said that the decision to close was “a further setback to a sector already on its knees”.

Gavin Stevenson, the vice-chair of the Nighttime Industries Association, said according to an article from The Herald: “Nightclubs just fundamentally are designed to be large capacity premises and unfortunately they need to have those numbers in to trade viably so we suspect the majority will now choose to close and take advantage of the closure grants.” He also said that nightclubs were already in a “very precarious financial position.”

In Scotland, nightclubs were only re-opened on the 9^th of August, having been completely shut since March 2020.

Presently, no such restrictions have been enforced in England, however nightclubs and any venues with a capacity of more than 10,000 people are required to check the COVID status of any patrons over the age of 18. According to BBC News, The Nighttime Industries Assocation chief executive Michael Kill stated that “Vaccine passports will have a devastating impact on a sector already so bruised by the pandemic…The mixed public health messages this week that have been coming out of the government have arrived at the worst possible time – the pre-Christmas period is absolutely crucial for our sector. And now it is announced damaging vaccine passports are to be implemented.” The rules were put in place on the 15^th of December.

Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show Javid told BBC News. “I’m pleased to say we will not be going ahead, we shouldn’t be doing things for the sake of it. I’ve never liked the idea of saying to people you must show your papers or something to do what is just an everyday activity, but we were right to properly look at it. We’ve looked at it properly and, whilst we should keep it in reserve as a potential option, I’m pleased to say that we will not be going ahead with plans for vaccine passports.”

If the scheme was to go ahead, members of the public would have been required to show proof that they had received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine in order to gain entry to any clubs and other crowded events. It would seem most are in support of this change of plans.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey described the plan as “divisive, unworkable and expensive,” and said that his party would have opposed them had they gone ahead. Labour had also criticised the plans as “unworkable”.

The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) said the plans could have crippled the industry and might have seen nightclubs face discrimination cases. The CEO Michael Kill commenting on the new development stated: “Following an intense political and public campaign by the NTIA, its members and wider industry supporters, we welcome the comments from the health secretary this morning regarding the government’s decision to scrap the planned mandate of COVID passports from the end of September.”

He continued “We hope that businesses will now be able to plan for the future with some degree of certainty, regain confidence from customers and the workforce and start to rebuild a sector that has consistently been at the sharp end of this pandemic.”

Mark Davyd, the CEO of Music Venue Trust, which represents hundreds of grassroots music venues throughout the UK, also shared a statement on the government’s scrapping the vaccine passport scheme.

“The double vaccine certification programme proposed by the government contained a number of challenges around deliverability, practicality, equality and potential discrimination,” Davyd said. “MVT has been describing those problems to Ministers and departments for the last two months, and we therefore welcome the decision to not move forward with this policy.

Davyd concluded his statement that despite not having to need for a vaccine passport “everyone in the live music community to please take a test before attending an event, a personal approach to risk mitigation that is highly effective and makes a real difference to the safety of gigs”.

However, despite the change of heart, the Scottish government announced on Friday (September 10) that from October 1 it will bring in a vaccine passport. Also in Wales, ministers will decide this week if vaccine passports should be used to gain entry to some events.

BREAKING: The 4 steps to lifting lockdown in England.

There will be weeks between each step: 4 weeks to reflect on the data followed by 1 week notice to be given to relevant sectors and the public. pic.twitter.com/7RTql0pV7S

— Daniel Hewitt (@DanielHewittITV) February 22, 2021

Music Venue Trust Mark Davyd has stated the the governments road map plan has given the organisation the go-ahead to begin ‘imagining how we revive live music in grassroots music venues and develop that work into the full return of the domestic music scene.’

From the 17th May, large performances up to a capacity of 1,000 people or half-full (whichever is lower for the venue) will be allowed. This could mean that smaller music venues and theatres will be allowed to put on shows and gigs to small crowds. This follows on from Johnsons discussion last week of having rapid testing for music venues and nightclubs to ensure these parts of the sector can open as they were unable to last year. Out-door venues of 4,000 people will also be allowed, or at hall-full capacity – whichever is lower.

Many in the music industry have called out to the government and Johnson to ensure that the music sector is not forgotten and supported equally throughout the rest of the pandemic. Greg Parmley, the CEO of LIVE has stated “While it is good to get some clarity following almost a year of confusion, as predicted our £4.5 billion industry is at the back of the queue to reopen. Any return to normality for live music could be months behind the rest of the economy. The Chancellor must acknowledge our extended closure in the Budget and provide the economic support needed to ensure the jobs and livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of people that work in our industry exist as we come through this pandemic.”

This includes extending the current 5% rate VAT on tickets sales, which was discussed to be risen to 20%, financially hurting those in live music extensively. Similarly, David Martin CEO of Featured Artists Coalition agrees with Parmley stating ‘there is some way to go’. Acknowledging a slower approach was correct, Martin said “the government should learn from its “slow response on income support and other financial assistance” last year.”

Smaller festivals such as Maiden Voyage have been 100% confirmed to go ahead by the government. Maiden Voyage have stated that they have been given ‘provisional confirmation from the government that our festival will be going ahead as planned this year.’ 

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However, the roadmap is reliant and based upon England passing four tests. These are the success of the vaccine rollout, the effectiveness of vaccines, how the NHS is coping with the current infection rate and any potential threats from new variants.