Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Chat

[Excalibur]

I think though that we'll also see a massive resurgence of the DIY approach in village halls again.

Amen, Brother Wayne. I've been saying that all along.

[DJ Jules]

Amen, Brother Wayne. I've been saying that all along.

Now, this may be short lived, but I've quite a few brides who have pushed their date out by a year and added extras because they'll now "have longer to save".

In 12 months time when we're feeling the full economic impact, it is likely to be a very different matter.

Julian

[Imagine]

Aaaaand there goes my remaining July wedding (cancelled completely for now), and potentially my August wedding who the venue are now saying could go ahead on a date in October.

But then the way things are going with different things being unlocked so quickly, we could be back next week....who knows anymore

[Excalibur]

Aaaaand there goes my remaining July wedding (cancelled completely for now), and potentially my August wedding who the venue are now saying could go ahead on a date in October.

But then the way things are going with different things being unlocked so quickly, we could be back next week....who knows anymore

Who knows? Well certainly not me. Just had a birthday party for 1st August cancelled, refund requested. Conversely, I've got a wedding ( in a tent, near a brewery! (If I'm not back in a month, send a search party. But don't look too hard ) still ( allegedly) going ahead. I've also got The Hooligans booked in for mid July, but don't expect that to happen.

[Imagine]

Well that's all folks. My September wedding has now rescheduled to next year subject to confirmation from the registrars. I'm off the road until 2021

[Benny Smyth]

Well that's all folks. My September wedding has now rescheduled to next year subject to confirmation from the registrars. I'm off the road until 2021

Blimey! I've still got 27 events booked in from August to December.

[Excalibur]

Well that's all folks. My September wedding has now rescheduled to next year subject to confirmation from the registrars. I'm off the road until 2021

You little fibber, you're piloting that behemoth crammed with food and drink round the Fens.

Blimey! I've still got 27 events booked in from August to December.

Only half a dozen here, and I suspect five of those won't happen.

[DJ Jules]

Only half a dozen here, and I suspect five of those won't happen.

I've still got 40 in the diary (including a NYE wedding) but 10 of those are Xmas for a venue based in a theatre that may or may not survive until December. July is now totally clear, August and September are slowly getting in touch and rescheduling now.

I've just turned away a booking for the 31st of July from someone who has "been told by the venue that it's OK to go ahead" (it's a community centre). Here we go into the big grey abyss of government guidelines:

- Community centres are allowed to re-open from 4th July as long as they're "Covid secure"
- Bars and restaurants are allowed to re-open from 4th July
- Bars and restaurants aren't allowed groups of more than 6 seated together from more than 2 households
- Parties are not allowed "where it is difficult to maintain social distancing"
- Music must not be at a volume that requires people to get close or raise their voices

Now, most people would read that and realise that it's impossible to hold a party. The overly optimistic among the hospitality industry would read that and see:

- That it's fine to hold parties as long it isn't "difficult to maintain social distancing" (i.e. they'll read the justification written into that sentence as a condition/get out clause)
- Community centres are OK to re-open and what services are they going to provide. That must mean it's OK to resume usual activities, right?

I had first contact from this guy a week ago and told him to hold fire on booking anything for a couple of weeks until the position became clearer. He came back to me last night, asking for a price and saying that he was clear to go ahead. My reply:

The current guidelines state that music (or any other form of entertainment) isn't allowed at a volume level that would require guests to raise their voices and it cannot cause guests to mingle/dance. Unless this is relaxed, I am not allowed to perform. The expectation in my industry is that this is unlikely to change before September at the very earliest.

I'm sure there are other DJs out there who will be happy to ignore the guidance to get the work.

I can actually see his party going ahead without consequence. Knowing the venue, I can actually see it being quite well attended too. I'm not going to be there

I've been watching a few wedding groups and there's a lot of very mixed feelings about going ahead with weddings. There's a few that are pressing ahead in July, some are breaking their celebrations out over a few days to allow key groups to get involved one at a time (and live streaming the whole thing). There are others that are pushing the boundaries of the guidelines by holding the ceremony and then having socially distanced picnics in the gardens of a venue or telling guests to individually book into a specific restaurant. The reactions have been the most interesting bit, they range from the ardent "the restaurant/venue should stop that" to a far more relaxed "don't see a problem with that". I can't see anyone enforcing anything at this point. It's taken 2 days of celebrations in Liverpool for the police to step and we had a full on street party in Bristol last weekend for the best part of 14hrs straight without the police lifting a finger (they have said they'll stop it if there's a recurrence this weekend).

Julian

[Excalibur]

I've just turned away a booking for the 31st of July from someone who has "been told by the venue that it's OK to go ahead" (it's a community centre). Here we go into the big grey abyss of government guidelines:

- Community centres are allowed to re-open from 4th July as long as they're "Covid secure"
- Bars and restaurants are allowed to re-open from 4th July
- Bars and restaurants aren't allowed groups of more than 6 seated together from more than 2 households
- Parties are not allowed "where it is difficult to maintain social distancing"
- Music must not be at a volume that requires people to get close or raise their voices

Now, most people would read that and realise that it's impossible to hold a party. The overly optimistic among the hospitality industry would read that and see:

OK, let's see how close we can get to a political statement without breaking the rules. Here we go into the big grey abyss of government guidelines: Well, to be fair, I'm fairly sure that it is beyond the wit of man/Boris and his happy band to come up with a black and white set of rules with no wiggle room to cover all possible eventualities, while still getting the hospitality industry in all its many facets back on its feet. There you go, but bear in mind there will be zero discussion of whether the government are doing a good/bad/indifferent job, or " My granny could have done it better". All that's allowed is how it will affect us, and how we may best cope. That's a Mod Note, so a line drawn in the sand.

Now, as I've been saying all along, I foresee that the first functions to happen will be where you book a piece of land/venue and very little else. Village Halls, Community Centres, tents in fields, with the minimum of venue staff, and consequently, the minimum of supervision/adherence to rules, such as they my be. Versatility and adaptability may be our best policy here. ( And possibly battery PA systems ).

Hotels with regiments of staff, and strict policies are going to be the very last venues to start trading again in the way we're used to. I think we're going to have a lot of informal, DIY weddings. ( Which are among my favourite ones, if I'm honest. One of the most enjoyable I had was a Derbyshire Village Hall, where the caretaker and I enjoyed winding the PA up to eleven before guests arrived, with some Rock and Metal, as he was an ex roadie or something, and the hall was decorated in half an hour by family. Food and Drink was BYO, ( Bring Your Own ) and the wedding cake was a three tier pork pie! A very good time was had by all ).

As a paraphrasing of the Ancient Chinese curse has it, " we are living in interesting times".

[rth_discos]

OK, let's see how close we can get to a political statement without breaking the rules. Here we go into the big grey abyss of government guidelines: Well, to be fair, I'm fairly sure that it is beyond the wit of man/Boris and his happy band to come up with a black and white set of rules with no wiggle room to cover all possible eventualities, while still getting the hospitality industry in all its many facets back on its feet.

I'm not sure if we've heard it used yet, but I'll expect to hear 'within the spirit of the law' coming in soon.

It's pretty clear when someone is trying to being clever to circumvent the rules.

Additionally, the latest guidelines are very new. It's likely legislation will be brought in to back those guidelines (this takes longer than publishing guidelines, and is likely partly the reason why such a gap was given between the announcement and venues being able to reopen), and this will make it very clear what is law and what is 'guidelines'.