PSA: THE BIGGER PICTURE
REVIVE LIVE The live events sector must keep pushing in the hope of a swift, safe, and lasting return for everyone, writes PSA’s Andy Lenthall.
The only connection I had with October Drift’s Losing My Touch was that the accompanying video was filmed in Clevedon, near Scarlett’s Vintage Tea Rooms where I usually stop for coffee and cake when cycling out that way. That was it until a couple of Wednesdays ago when it was the first song I’d seen played live since March 2020, at a well organised, socially distanced show at 229 London. Grown people cried that night; it happens after a rough, old year. I also saw the return of the Event Production Show, held at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre – a brave and bullish move, perfectly executed by the team at Mash Media, which was well attended and featured some great, engaging content. These two events have instilled a little confidence into this jaded correspondent. Of course, the events that we’re all looking at for hope are the pilots that took place in Liverpool. A couple of months ago, we shared what we understood to be the purpose of those events, with testing at the heart of the prevention of infection. Little surprise really when initial results reveal that putting people without COVID-19 together doesn’t spread COVID-19.
Two further key findings were the positive tests for a mere handful of individuals who wouldn’t have taken a test had they not attended; it could be argued that the event prevented infections as it encouraged testing. Follow-up testing (an average of 50% of attendees across all events took a follow up PCR test) revealed an ‘R’ rate below that of the region at the time of the event. In the light of the data provided, it seems that live events are as safe as, if not safer than going to a supermarket. Some would even say that gigs save lives. With these events designed to show ‘how’ we get back to live events rather than ‘if’, we wonder if you’re reading this while waiting for good news on 14 June or just after news has been delivered. At the time of writing, pre-sale for the Download test camping event will be over and general sale opened. Why another test event? This time the focus will be on multi-day events, at which there will always be the chance that someone may present with COVID-19 symptoms. This event is to test and refine protocols for that eventuality, hopefully leading to standard practice to be shared amongst all festival organisers. All this positive news, assisted by a helpful team from DCMS and SAGE, is set against a backdrop 52
