When Might Outdoor Concerts And Events Return?
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Will we be able to enjoy outdoor concerts, festivals and other live events this summer?
The government is considering a number of pilot events, though specific dates have not yet been provided.
Minister for Tourism and Culture Catherine Martin said last night that the green light had been given for her department to prepare proposals on the holding of a limited number of large events , similar to the recent experimental concert in Barcelona which saw a crowd of 5,000 people all wearing masks.
To discuss this we were joined by Angela Dorgan, chair of the National Campaign for the Arts, and Matt McGranaghan from the Music and Entertainment Association of Ireland, which represents 5,000 musicians, entertainers, road crew and others in the live events industry.
The pandemic has shown that most of us have a hankering to meet friends in person.
The pub and restaurant trades have had their bleakest years in living memory, but they should bounce back, at least in places where they were still in demand before the pandemic.
The crisis has shown us conclusively that video-conferencing services such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams cannot replace the immediacy and intimacy of the person-to-person encounter. Nevertheless, the video apps have still become part of our lives, tools we can use when we need them.
More of us have also become used to online shopping, cancelling out the necessity of a weekly trudge around a supermarket and the decline in the use of cash has been dramatic.
A promoter, a gallery director, and other key people from the arts world offer their take on 2020
It was the year of living dangerously for many in the arts & culture sector. This is how some of them coped
Angela Dorgan, Mick Flannery, Mary McCarthy and Edel Curtin were among those on the arts/culture front line in 2020.
Thu, 31 Dec, 2020 - 09:13
Ellie O’Byrne
Shane Dunne, managing director, Indiependence. Picture Maura Hickey.
Promoter Shane Dunne is the MD of music festival Indiependence, which announced it was leaving its location of 15 years in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, following the cancellation of Indiependence 2020. Dunne acted as spokesperson for EPIC, the lobbying group formed to support the live events sector. In November, his management company received Live Performance Support Scheme funding of €76,000 to produce a series of musical performances in Mitchelstown Caves.