Last night’s BRIT Awards music show formed part of a litmus test trial which it is hoped will eventually inform a decision on how many fans could attend July’s London E-Prix races at the ExCeL Arena.
While award winner Dua Lipa’s admirably rousing speech calling for nurses to be given enhanced pay and host Jack Whitehall’s amusing jibes at national oddities Piers Morgan and Laurence Fox grabbed the headlines, there was a detailed practical benefit from the awards for sporting and cultural events this summer and beyond.
This was because the BRITs was the first large-scale event of its kind to take place in an indoor arena – the O2 – since the beginning of the pandemic triggered lockdowns in London in March 2020.
4,000 people attended last night’s BRITs, with key personnel from the UK-government founded Events Research Programme (ERP) monitoring a specific criteria on how crowd control and a host of health and safety requirements performed.
A powerful message from @DUALIPA tonight 🙌💙 #BRITs pic.twitter.com/KwP7tOr5dE
— BRIT Awards (@BRITs) May 11, 2021
The ERP aims to “explore how a combination of testing and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs – actions that people can take to mitigate the spread of coronavirus) can inform decisions on safely lifting restrictions at events”.
The BRIT Awards was one of the 10-15 pilot events held to allow the ERP to inform decisions on the safe removal of social distancing from Step 4 of the UK roadmap. The findings have a key objective of evidencing if a full reopening of events in multiple sectors is possible.
Co-chaired by Sir Nicholas Hytner and David Ross, the body liaises closely with national and local public health authorities who in turn are in direct contact with hosting arenas and stadiums, such as the London ExCeL venue that will host the return of the London E-Prix in July.
The board of the ERP is now set to make detailed recommendations to the UK Prime Minister and the Secretaries of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on how restrictions might be safely lifted.
Formula E will shortly be in consultation with the DCMS regarding the way forward for specifically how many fans could be allowed at the London E-Prix races, which are scheduled to take place in just 10 weeks’ time.
The UK government has said that it will “ensure that the results gathered from research programmes are fed into policy development swiftly to ensure data is used to inform decisions around further reopening”.
These are expected to come in June when further details on the possible relaxation of restrictions is detailed in the governments “step 4”.
One of the key figures in managing the London E-Prix at ExCeL Arena is Oliver McCrudden, who detailed some of the interface that he and his team have in reacting to the on-going test events, the next of which is the FA Cup Final at Wembley between Chelsea and Leicester City this Saturday.
“There’s going to be a lot of information that comes on the back end of these [events],” McCrudden told The Race recently.
“The whole project is taking in a massive scope. It’s going to be very interesting, actually, to see how they frame the results from such a wide-ranging project.
“You’ve got some that are potentially looking at how concourses are operated in a football stadium, the Crucible [famed Sheffield snooker venue] was looking at how an indoor event is working with a fairly small number of people.
“But even that’s quite a small and it’s not exactly a vociferous crowd [at snooker]. They’re not shouting and screaming and hollering and breathing down the neck of the person in the row in front of them.
“So all of its going to be very interesting. I’m intrigued to see how clear the guidance is that comes on the back of it, but we will study it when it comes out.”
Formula E is expecting to get the information on the test events about a week before the June 21.
“We should at least have the guidance. Then we’ll scramble to see how best we can do the venue,” confirmed McCrudden.
