The Future Of Events - A Look Into The United Kingdom's COVID-19 Safety Measures For Live Events

The United Kingdom seems to be leading the pack to reintroduce live events in a post-Covid-19 world. While many economic sectors worldwide have seen a return, the events industry continues to look for innovative ways to safely open sporting, music, and other live events. This article will review what innovative safety measures live event producers have taken to adhere to public safety protocols in the United Kingdom. 

Updated COVID-19 Guidance From The UK Government

There have been many event news articles coming from the United Kingdom this month with live events and recreation returning and new guidance being released. Recently the United Kingdom Government released the following further guidance:

• Guidance for the public on the phased return of outdoor sport and recreation in England

• Maintaining records of staff, customers and visitors to support NHS Test and Trace

These new regulations offer more detailed information to help event producers plan for the future of their events and how to protect their attendees, event staff, and volunteers. We have created a free guide to help you navigate new health and safety regulations and implement new event planning strategies in the post-COVID-19 world, Click here to download the guide. 

A Socially Distanced Approach 

To ensure that all attendees, event staff, and volunteers are safe, a greater investment in health and safety measures is required. Here are a few approaches people are considering for the future of events. 

Drive-Ins

Event producers have been working hard to find novel ways of ensuring social distancing practices can be effectively enforced. Many event producers have turned to an old concept of the drive-in event where attendees remain in their cars to watch a show or performance. This has been seen as a successful way to get events up and running  for this festival season.

Here are few articles that cover successful drive-events to checkout: 

• Here Are All the Drive-In Concerts Happening Due to Social Distancing
• Plans for UK-wide drive-in gigs announced

Bubbled Platforms 

This August England hosted what is widely considered one of the first socially distanced concerts( Non drive in) in the world. This Sam Fender Concert  hosted 2500 attendees on 500 small platforms to ensure social distancing protocols were followed. This novel approach to social distancing protocols sparked international news and could be seen all over social media. This concept has gained even more support as many people start to consider the option of attending large events for the fall. 

Sports Spectators 

One of the hottest topics in events is the return of live spectator. Professional sports worldwide have resumed their seasons without spectators. However, the pressure to find a way of bringing the spectators back into the stadiums is mounting, as revenues drop. While there have been various sporting events with socially distanced spectators, there are still a lot of logistics and decisions to be made in the coming months. 

The United Kingdom has been leading the charge with various pilot sporting events that test safety measures in preparation for fans' return to sporting venues. 

Here are a few articles that cover how sporting event producers are working to bring back spectators to major sporting events. 

• UK sports minister confident fans can return to stadiums safely
• Coronavirus: Fans to return in select pilot events from Saturday
• How will the coronavirus change sports?

Conclusion 

Where there is a will, there is away, and live events are no exception. With more reopening taking place around the world there is great pressure to see live events return to communities. The event industry will continue to innovate and adopt new technologies and promotes to keep everyone safe, the show must go on after all. 

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