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Music Venue Trust encourages music fans to #golocal as live sector continues to navigate COVID
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 10 January 2022
The Music Venue Trust has launched a new campaign encouraging music fans to enjoy live shows at their local grassroots venues, noting that those venues have an assortment of COVID safety measures in place and – by staying local – people can avoid the COVID risks associated with travel and large crowds.
MVT says: “Given the current data and the guidance from government, which continues to allow the staging of live music events, the #golocal campaign puts the emphasis on enjoying live music in a safe environment by urging music fans to visit local grassroots music venues, avoiding mass transport and large crowds of people”.
“From the very beginning of this pandemic”, it adds, “MVT has led the way in helping the grassroots music community provide safe environments to stage live music events and continues to prioritise the health and wellbeing of audiences, venue staff, artists, and support crew”.
That work has included the organisation’s Take A Test campaign, which encourages people to always take a lateral flow test before attending a gig, to confirm they are definitely not currently COVID positive.
Commenting on the latest campaign to support grassroots venues that continue to navigate all the COVID challenges, MVT CEO Mark Dayvd adds: “From day one of this crisis we have liaised directly with government and medical experts and have been at the heart of the discussions around how to stage responsible live music events and reopen every venue safely”.
“We continue to offer full support and guidance to the grassroots music venue sector”, he adds, “and with them have implemented numerous groundbreaking initiatives such as the Take A Test campaign to protect the health of audiences, artists, crew and venue staff, whose wellbeing has always been and remains our number one concern”.
“It is clear to us, given the current data available to us, that the safest way to enjoy live music at present is to do so at a local level, avoiding mass transport and large crowds of people”, he goes on. “We see this difficult and uncertain period as an opportunity to put the focus firmly back on local music venues and to encourage people to investigate the many amazing opportunities to safely experience live music within their own communities”.
