BBC News
By Ross McKee
image captionIrish band Kíla is set to return to Stendhal this year
Festival organisers have urged the NI Executive to provide reopening dates for the return of live music events.
A pilot concert in Liverpool last weekend saw 6,000 closely-packed music fans enjoy the event without masks or social distancing.
Open House festival director Kieran Gilmore said the uncertainty around reopening was deeply frustrating . The music and events industry is being completely ignored by our executive, he added. It is frustrating for us to have so little guidance in Northern Ireland. The hospitality industry has been given dates at least - we have been given nothing.
By: Gideon Gottfried
Andrew Benge/Getty Images
Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips performs on the Lovell Stage during day on of Blue Dot Festival 2018 in Manchester, England. Blue Dot is one of many events that had to cancel a second year running.More than a quarter of the UK s festivals with a capacity of over 5,000 have been cancelled due to the government s inaction on insurance, an evaluation done by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) finds.
The association s research, which has been tracking the 2021 festival season, indicates that 26% of UK festivals with a capacity larger than 5,000 have already announced that they will not go ahead this year.
Scottish events sector will be wiped out if Covid rules not relaxed, industry claims FESTIVALS and events will be wiped out if strict Covid rules are not relaxed, it has been claimed. Scottish cultural centres and venues could risk being left behind their counterparts in England as rules are set to change differently either side of the border. Arts venues could face permanent closures if the 2m distance is maintained for theatres and concert halls - despite having 1m in bars - industry experts have claimed. Organisers warned Scotland risks of being left off UK tour schedules for the rest of the year if the country keeps social distancing rules intact.
The Week in Light & Sound
Tuesday, 4 May 2021
On Trial - A pilot concert in Liverpool on Sunday saw 5,000 people legally crammed into a small space for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The mini-festival, headlined by Blossoms, in Liverpool s Sefton Park was one of the government s official trial events to research how large gatherings can safely take place again. All ticket holders had to take a supervised lateral flow test at one of four testing centres in the city the day before and were only allowed in if the test was negative. They were also strongly encouraged to take more sensitive PCR tests on the day of the show and to do so again five days later, on Friday. That will be crucial to working out whether there was any spread of the virus. It s all with the aim of working out how summer music festivals can go ahead after 21 June, when stage four of the government reopening roadmap will, in theory, see the end of restrictions on social contact.