Music Venues Trust raises a glass for grassroots music venues and 100 Club tests pathogen detection system

There are some small signs of hope for the battered live music sector as it emerges from its most challenging year ever. These came in the form of news that after sustained lobbying of government ministers, the Music Venues Trust (MVT) successfully argued that grassroots venues must be allowed to sell alcohol to make ticketed gigs financially viable, with the new rules coming into effect from 2 December. The previous ban on selling alcohol while venues were in Tier 2, meant that venues simply couldn’t make ends meet from ticket sales alone thanks to social distancing measures reducing audience numbers by half.

According to the MVT, 65% of these venues’ income comes from sales of drinks. Originally guidelines stated that alcohol could only be served as part of a ‘substantial’ meal, but Music Venue Trust argued that 92% of grassroots music venues do not have the necessary facilities to fulfil that criteria. The government have since said a ‘scotch egg’ constitutes a substantial meal but this ruling for ticketed gigs allows for more flexibility in a ‘Covid-secure’ setting.

Phil Bowdery, Chair of The Concert Promoters Association commented on the move: “LIVE is delighted that the Government has listened to our calls to allow alcohol to be sold at live music venues under the new Tier 2 restrictions. This is hugely important for our industry as stopping the sale of alcohol was going to mean that even if venues were technically able to open under Tier 2, they wouldn’t have been able to financially. There's still a long way to go for the live music industry to recover, and the new situation is extremely challenging for those in Tier 3, but we're grateful to all those involved, in the industry and in Government, for securing this sensible step."

In others news London’s iconic 100 Club on Oxford Street is set to be the first live music venue to trial a ground-breaking air cleaning technology designed by Pathogen Reduction Systems (PRS) a British HVAC company. According to PRS their system works by scrubbing “indoor air clean using high intensity UVC light to safely inactivate 99.99% of dangerous airborne pathogens such as COVID-19, MRSA, measles, TB and the common flu virus”. With the trial set to begin in January 2021, 100 Club owner Jeff Horton explained why he’s keen to test this system: “We agreed to trial the PRS technology without hesitation and are very excited to be the pilot venue. The 100 Club has always attempted to be a leader in bringing new music to the forefront and this is an opportunity to be leading the way in getting Grassroots Music Venues and the entire hospitality industry open again after the dire consequences of Covid-19. We also see this as an opportunity to future proof the venue should the world be brought to its knees again at some point down the road by another pandemic.”

The Pathogen Reduction System’s ability to clean indoor air by inactivating deadly airborne pathogens like Sars-CoV-2 offers entertainment venues the second line of defence within the ‘Test, Clean, Prevent’ (TCP) safety model proposed by The Music Venue Trust as a more practical alternative to ‘Hands Face Space’ (HFS).

With bespoke PRS units costing between £18-25K, the MVT’s CEO Mark Davyd points out this may be a more cost-effective approach than simply paying venues to shut: “The government has invested huge amounts of money into mothballing venues or supporting limited capacity events reliant upon adherence to HFS by the individual. For a fraction of this cost, it could work with the live music industry to develop and deliver a comprehensive TCP approach to live events, remove the reliance on HFS by individuals, and create an economically viable sector with a negligible infection risk.”

For more info visit musicvenuetrust.com, www.the100club.co.uk and pathogen-reduction.com