NEWS
THE FIRST DANCE
Liverpool recently welcomed the return of live music from lockdown as more than 6,000 people attended two nights of clubbing without social distancing and face masks. We caught up with Symphotec, the company responsible for managing health and safety at the COVID-safe test events.
All eyes were on Liverpool’s Bramley Moore Dock on 30 April and 1 May as two live music events took place to test crowd safety and check what impact easing COVID-19 rules will have ahead of a full lifting of restrictions later in the year.
Symphotech worked from the conception of the test events, supporting the organisers Circus Music and The Events Company UK, to create a COVID- safe clubbing experience. With the emphasis on the research and test event aspect of the shows, protocols had to meet the criteria required by the scientists and multiple stakeholders.
Symphotech Director Eddy Grant was project leader, producing a detailed, constantly evolving risk analysis for the staff and the audience. He explained: “When the roadmap out of lockdown was announced by the Government, in February, I spoke with Sam Newson of The Events Company UK, Richard McGinnis of Circus Music and Culture Liverpool, aware that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was favouring Liverpool as a location.
All were enthusiastic to ‘make events happen’ and the ensuing months have been spent considering the additional challenges to working a normal gig. The almost daily shifting sands of the science meant we weren’t certain which elements the scientists were
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going to look at, with the additional protocols each brought into the frame adding to our planning.”
Speaking on site, Newson said:“Eddy has worked very closely with me (in the weeks) leading in to these shows. The science has been changing daily to trigger us figuring out what we had to do; not just for this weekend, but for the whole industry to be able to come back. We’ve been working hand-in-hand with Public Health England, DCMS, local health and licensing officials. All have been on site and scrutinising the details of what we’ve done and they are happy that we have delivered things correctly.
“It’s also about looking beyond this weekend to leave a legacy of protocols to create an event roadmap for others to reference and learn from. Only through collaboration with people across this incredible industry of creative ‘can do’ professionals, can we produce a sustainable way of working with COVID into the future.
“It is the first COVID-safe dance event for 15 months so it’s been a lot of pressure on Eddy and I to get it right. It’s a massive risk – not knowing what is going to happen with the COVID results post-event.
“But it has also been a special moment: it feels like we’re making history. I have picked a production team we have worked with for a long time: these are
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