Scottish concertgoers could be asked to take coronavirus tests under plan to help bring back live shows

Concertgoers in Scotland could be asked to undergo coronavirus tests as part of a drive to bring live events back without social distancing.

Geoff Ellis hopes a testing system can be put in place which would allow live events to go ahead without social distancing.

The boss of Scotland's biggest music promoters has revealed talks are underway with the Scottish Government about allowing "full capacity" shows to be staged at the likes of the Hydro and the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow before the end of 2020.

Geoff Ellis, chief executive of DF Concerts and Events, said further talks were due to take place within the next fortnight which could see test events in the autumn and a full roll-out by the end of this year.

He suggested that the model could help bring capacity crowds back safely to major sporting events in Scotland.

Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national clinical director, signalled this week that the first test sports events with fans could be staged in the next few months.

However the Scottish Government has been warned that it will not be financially viable for music and theatre venues to operate with social distancing in place and urged to help develop an alternative way of reopening before a coronavirus vaccine is found and rolled out around the world.

The idea emerged on the same day that some of Scotland’s biggest musical stars – including Lewis Capaldi, The Proclaimers, Emeli Sande, Amy Macdonald, Annie Lennox, KT Tunstall, Paolo Nutini and The Proclaimers – threw their weight behind a new campaign to save the industry from collapse.

The Let The Music Play campaign wants a “clear, conditional timeline” for the reopening of UK venues without social distancing.

The idea of testing regimes helping to revive industries which say they cannot operate under social distancing restrictions has already been pitched to the UK Government by London-based promoter Melvin Benn.

Mr Ellis’s company, which has been staging live events, for more than 30 years, runs the King Tut’s venue in Glasgow, the city’s TRNSMT music festival, and indoor concerts across the country.

He cited the example of a production of Phantom of the Opera in South Korea, which had been allowed to host audiences without social distancing due to the country's test, trace and quarantine regimes.

He said: “We’ve presented a plan to the Scottish Government last week and got a positive reception. We all want there to be a vaccine and that’s obviously the long-term aim, but that’s not going to happen in the immediate future.

"Social distancing just doesn't work for venues. You could get maybe 4000 people into the Hydro, but that wouldn't pay for the show on the stage. If you were sat on the back row you wouldn't be able to see as no-one would be able to afford to put them in. We need something else to happen

"We're not expecting to be able to open any time soon at full capacity without social distancing. But this plan would be a way of getting people in, as happens with Phantom of the Opera in South Korea.

"It's not completely full-proof, but it's a way of minimising risk.

"We're suggesting that we have a system where if someone has a clean bill of health that would then validate their ticket and they could then go into a concert.

"We obviously need input from scientists and heathcare experts to say: 'Here is where it falls it down and here's what we need to do.' Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we can get our teeth into it and refine that plan.

"This would not just be about gigs. It would be about encouraging people to have a coronavirus test. They would have to be affordable and available. But they could be adopted by football and sports, and across the hospitality industry as well.

"We're all talking to each other, because we're all ships in the same storm together.

"It's not going to come in tomorrow. It's going to take a bit of time to work out, but I think most people in the music industry are aware that we're probably not going to have any large-scale concerts for the rest of 2020.

"If this could be worked up we could maybe be launching this in November after a couple of test events.

“There needs to be a lead-up time for bigger concerts. Plenty of them have been rescheduled into the first quarter of next year. We'd hope that those concerts can go ahead on this basis."

Speaking at her daily briefing, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “I have great sympathy for the position that musicians and venues find themselves in, and the position of the arts generally.

“On the issue of reopening venues, we will give provisional dates as quickly as possible, but I come back to the point I have made all along.

“We have to do this safely and that means we have to consider all of the relevant information before we get to these positions.

“But I want to see venues open and thriving again just as quickly as possible.”

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