Under Pressure from Entertainment Industry, UK Government Releases Findings of Events Research Programme

As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and artists within the theatre and music industries in the UK announced that they would take legal action against the UK Government to release the results of their COVID-19 Events Research Programme, which was established to study the risk of transmission of COVID-19 at large events.

Today, the UK Government has officially released the findings- some of which are outlined below:

• Both indoor and outdoor events carry levels of transmission risk but 'pinch points' in venues where attendees may congregate for extended periods carry greater transmission risk
• Large indoor events with high crowd density and proximity may pose a higher potential risk of transmission as a result of close proximity and poor ventilation.
• Mitigations such as face coverings, ventilation, testing, restrictions on food and drink, and social distancing/capacity caps all contributed to reducing transmission risk
• Compliance with social distancing, face covering and testing requirements was generally high across all events where they were required (96.2%* of people in sampled areas were observed wearing face coverings correctly while seated during the event), particularly in indoor environments (98.3%) in comparison to events conducted outdoors or with a substantial open air element (92.1%).
• Low uptake of PCR testing before and after events meant evidence of direct transmission at events was challenging to determine.
• Nearly all CO2 levels recorded at the pilot events were within the bounds of reasonable ventilation benchmarks** with outdoor spaces clearly better for ventilation than indoors.

Click here to read the full report.

The U.K. was set to reopen fully on June 21, but the reopening date has now been pushed back to July 19 due to the spread of the Delta variant of the virus. This has resulted in theatres, cinemas, and more to continue to operate at reduced capacity. Andrew Lloyd Webber's new West End production of Cinderella is set to begin previews on June 25, and officially open on July 14, but would only be able to do so at a reduced capacity as of this time.