How The World Plans To Open Up Nightclubs And Festivals Post Covid

News & Features

Countries are releasing details about how they plan to restart their nightlife and live music industries.

A black and white photo of an escalator in a subway station.

Governments around the world are facing pressure to open up the worldwide economy and guidelines are being published to set out the return of live music venues, nightclubs and music festivals.

Just over 4 million COVID-19 cases across the globe means that any reopening of the nightlife economy needs to be carefully considered. China has seen nightlife cautiously open up but in South Korea there was a spike in COVID-19 cases linked to the period when nightclubs reopened - this resulted in a further shutdown. It is difficult to imagine live music, festivals and nightclubs opening properly until a vaccine is found. Despite this, governments have set out multi-staged plans to get music venues and events back open alongside the rest of the economy.

The U.K
Here in the UK, the Home Office has published a 60 page document named 'Our Plan To Rebuild' on May 11th. Within the document is the three-stage plan for coming out of lockdown. The document references restaurants to be opened in the third stage. 

Nightclubs are only mentioned once when listing examples of crowded indoor spaces which may take longer to reopen: "While reopening outdoor spaces and activities (subject to continued social distancing) comes earlier in the roadmap because the risk of transmission outdoors is significantly lower, it is likely that reopening indoor public spaces and leisure facilities (such as gyms and cinemas), premises whose core purpose is social interaction (such as nightclubs), venues that attract large crowds (like sports stadia), and personal care establishments where close contact is inherent (like beauty salons) may only be fully possible significantly later depending on the reduction in numbers of infections."

In Scotland nightlife reopening will only be considered if there will be assurances that doing so would not put pressures on the ambulance services.
South Korea
South Korea were forced to close their nightclubs again at the end of April after relaxing social distancing measures at the beginning of April 2020.
Australia
Australia suffered under 10,000 cases and restrictions have been lifted in some areas completely.
Netherlands
The Netherlands have said no large scale events can take place in the absence of a vaccine and attendees will need to be vaccinated in the future. However they have said gatherings of less than 30 people can take place to include cinemas etc.
A busy city street with a billboard for vitaminwater
The U.S
The United States has been relaxing measures in states least affected. Areas hardest hit such as New York are unlikely to see any restrictions relaxed in the near future.
The little south logo is on a blue background.

Written by

Editorial Team • 13 May 2020

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