Promising news.
Hopes that Ireland’s event industry could make a return over the summer have been reignited as only 15 cases of Covid-19 were reported as a result of trial events in the UK.
The UK pilot events have been running over the past number of months with up to 58,000 people attending the various events.
Now, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has confirmed to the Evening Standard that only 15 cases were reported as a result.
The events included the Brit Awards, the FA Cup final, an outdoor rave in Liverpool, and the World Snooker Championships, and were allowed to run as normal, without masks or social distancing.
Just four cases of Covid-19 occurred across the entire 17 days of the World Snooker Championships, staged indoors at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre.
Meanwhile, zero cases were reported after the Brits, and there was only two cases after 5,900 people gathered at an outdoor music festival at Sefton Park in Liverpool.
There was also no cases at the reduced-capacity football at Wembley Stadium, and only nine cases after 6,000 people packed into a nightclub in Liverpool over two days without masks.
The figures indicate that festivals, sporting events and other events held outdoors are very safe, meanwhile, the slightly higher incidence confirmed that clubbing is the toughest part of the night economy to reopen.
“Overall it has been a real success,” Dowden told the publication.
He also announced that the UK Government is commissioning a second round of trials involving even bigger crowds over the coming months.
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media, Catherine Martin, recently said that Ireland will begin to pilot large-scale sporting events and concerts in the coming months.
While the Minister could not give a timeline for when these events will take place, she did confirm that they will be allowed both “indoors and outdoors”.
Martin said last month that she was happy to be able to give a “hopeful signal” for the summer after the Cabinet agreed to pilot the events in a move mirroring a number of other European countries.
“I’ve received agreement from my Cabinet colleagues, for pilot large-scale events, indoors and outdoors,” she said.
“This is a positive signal to the events industry whose doors have remained closed for so long, that we are planning to reopen you again in a safe way. I hope this is a positive, hopeful signal for summer to come.
“I hope today sets a positive tone for everyone as we move into the summer months.”
The Gov.ie website says that live events are going to be examined at the end of June alongside a number of other “high-risk” activities such as the reopening of cinemas, and “enhanced higher and further education on-campus experience for the new academic year”.
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