As part of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s road map to releasing the Covid 19 lockdown, a number of events were arranged in Liverpool over the weekend to analyse the impact of holding mass events with no restrictions now that most people in the UK have had at least one dose of a Covid 19 vaccine. The events that had been arranged included a number of large music events across the city of Liverpool which people could attend with out the need for social distancincing or wearing face coverings.
The events took place with a number of scientists working in the background to analyse all the findings of research which was being undertaken to find out how mass events may be able to get restarted.
People attending the events must have had a negative Covid test before the event to ensure that they are no danger to others in passing on the disease.
The first of the events included a night club style event at a warehouse at Bramley Moore Dock. This was hosted by Circus, Luna Outdoor Cinema. There were two of this style of event being arranged at the warehouse and beforehand, long queues could be seen building up on the pavement outside the warehouse. This caused a major obstacle for people living in the area as well as pedestrians who might just be using the pavement to go for a walk as a bit of exercise. There was also a lot of litter left outside the event such as empty bottles and food packaging.
Yousef Zaher, the co-founder of Circus events and DJ, said he was “excited to be able to contribute to getting the whole nation back into the real world”.
He said his event would be “monumental for a thousand reasons” and added that once those attending are through the doors, it would be “old school normality to gather data to be able to get us to 21 June with as least resistance as possible”.
A spokesman for Liverpool City Council said the choice of the city was down to its “can-do attitude and real sense of community spirit”.
“People get the importance of being part of something significant that helps get life back to normal,” he said.
“We saw how people embraced mass testing and similarly we are seeing the same with the ERP.”
The next event which was arranged was another concert which allowed up to five thousand music fans to attend a gig in Sefton Park. People were again not needed to wear face masks or observe any kind of social distancing. In total five thousand music fans attended this event, enjoying the atmosphere from something we have all been missing for the past year. The line-up includes Blossoms, The Lathums and Liverpool singer-songwriter Zuzu and the event forms part of the national Events Research Programme (ERP).
Ticketholders had to take a Lateral Flow Test at a community testing site 24 hours before the event and had to produce a negative result to gain entry.
Attendees will then have to take another test five days after the event as part of the ERP’s research.
Ahead of the Liverpool event, Festival Republic Managing Director Melvin Benn said: ‘This event is not about pushing vaccines or passports, we do not want to limit attendance to our events in any way.
Following the event, local residents gave a mixture of reactions as to how they think the events had gone and how effective they would be. The majority said that they had no problem with such events happening but a few said they were obstructed by people who were waiting in queues outside the venues as they strayed on to the roads and were almost hit by cars. The results of the different scientific findings are now being tallied up to find out how safe it is to return to a life with no Covid 19 restrictions.
