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THEATRES, MUSIC VENUES and promoters say they have been “blindsided” by new Covid-19 restrictions on their industry as they try to come up with ways to implement the changed rules.
From today, all indoor entertainment, cultural, community and sporting events that are indoors must operate at a maximum capacity of 50% and all of these events must now be fully seated. This restrictions are to remain in place until 9 January.
Organisers were given just days to rearrange plans for events they had already sold tickets for at higher than 50% capacity, with some choosing to cancel or reschedule while others are scrambling to add additional performances or contacting customers asking them to move to a different date.
“It came as a real surprise. Uusually there’s be a sense from the government ahead of time what was going to happen but we had no indication they would go in that direction,” Lucy Ryan, director of programming at Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre told The Journal.
“And in the phase before 22 October it was 60% capacity so it’s a bit frustrating that we’re not even where we were before. For us that’s a difference of 15 seats.”
The venue was already operating at 75% capacity, she said, to ensure patrons felt safe.
“Now we’re in a position where we have to move people out of performances. I can’t tell you how counter-intuitive that feels,” she said.
We are planning to put on some additional performances of All of the Angels [the current play at the theatre] and we’ll be contacting ticketholders to offer them those additional performances and then trying to move them. Some shows haven’t hit capacity yet so we’ll be asking people to move to those.
She said those working in the sector feel “very negative” as they were working hard to ensure theatres were safe, with social distancing, regular sanitising and ventilation.
“It feels like we’re the whipping boys in some way, that we’re an easy target,” she said.
Ryan said customers calling the box office in recent days have been “very understanding” but the changes will cost the theatre money and everyone is concerned about what might happen in the new year.
“It’s not just this Christmas period, we’re taking bookings for all of 2022. It’s exhausting for a sector that is overworked and underpaid anyway to have all of these hoops to jump through.”
Venues such as Dolan’s Pub in Limerick have said their phone lines have been “overwhelmed” with queries regarding gigs as they tried to come up with a last minute solution following the government announcement.
The pub said it is now “working on a system that is fair and workable” for gigs to go ahead at 50% capacity.
While some organisers have decided to press ahead and ask some ticketholders to change dates or take a refund, others have had to cancel or refund all customers and ask them to buy new tickets for reduced capacity shows.
Aiken Promotions yesterday announced that upcoming Christy Moore concerts at Dublin’s Vicar Street are to be cancelled.
Last night’s show went ahead as planned, but fans who want to attend on 14 or 16 December or 3 or 9 January will have to buy their tickets again today. These shows will operate at 50% capacity.
Moore’s 8 December show was also cancelled and is not being rescheduled at 50% capacity.
Artists and performers have expressed their disappointment at having to cancel or reschedule shows, as they had waited months to take to the stage again.
The announcement today in Ireland has destroyed all shows this Christmas. That is a fact. Because you cant sell tickets and then go pick 50% of the crowd and tell them to fuck off. This is horrendous and depressing,
— James Vincent McMorrow (@jamesvmcmorrow) December 3, 2021
Rock Band Ash informed fans yesterday that they would have to cancel shows in Limerick, Galway, Cork, Wexford, Dublin and Castlebar due to the new rule.
We’re absolutely gutted that unfortunately due to the introduction of new Covid restrictions by the Irish Government we have no option but to postpone our shows in Limerick, Galway, Cork, Wexford, Dublin and Castlebar again. Please hold onto your tickets, brighter days are ahead!
— ASH (@ashofficial) December 6, 2021
They said their management, agent and promoters were working on rescheduling dates.
Supports for the sector
The Abbey Theatre said it is also working through a plan for any performances that are already over 50% capacity and its box office will be contacting impacted ticket holders to arrange new tickets, a credit note or a refund.
“We had already capped capacity at 70% for both Faith Healer and The Long Christmas Dinner, so we are hopeful that we will be in a position to safely accommodate any affected patrons,” the theatre said.
“Faith Healer was postponed due to the closure of the theatre in March 2020. We are relieved to hear that we will be able to go ahead with performances of this production.”
The Abbey said its shows will go ahead as planned and will still require the same number of artists and staff to deliver them, even with 50% capacity.
The theatre said that while the new capacity limit will not impact on staffing or productions for the theatre, the limitation “will have a huge impact on other venues and other productions across the country”.
We stand in solidarity with the arts community and support the National Campaign for the Arts call for additional resources for those affected. The Abbey Theatre will continue to work to support artists, audiences, our team and the arts community, as we navigate this latest challenge together.
The government has promised supports for those impacted by the new restrictions. Minister Catherine Martin last week said she had secured an extra €25 million to support live entertainment, including venues, producers, promoters, artists, crews and nightclubs.
Following a meeting between officials from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media with stakeholders yesterday, the National Campaign for the Arts said it welcomed supports but was “disappointed” that no assurance had been offered about what will happen after 9 January.
“What criteria are being applied to this decision-making process and what will inform a review of measures in January?” the NCFA asked.
In response to The Journal, Minister Martin’s department said the full new support scheme will be announced this week, “given the urgent situation now facing the entertainment sector”.
“Minister Catherine Martin TD, along with the Tánaiste hosted the Hospitality and Tourism Forum to speak directly to stakeholders and to hear what they need in terms of supports. The meeting was also attended by the Taoiseach and Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath. Representatives from the Arts and performance sector were also at the meeting.
“It is understood that a number of performance events will find it a challenge to run at 50% and some may cancel. Where events are proceeding it is a matter for venues to manage to capacities. With this in mind, financial supports have been developed to assist businesses in keeping afloat during this difficult time.”
The department also said those who lost jobs due to the new restrictions will be able to apply for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) from today.
“If additional Covid restrictions become necessary, government had planned for this and, as part of Budget 2022, Paschal Donohoe TD, Minister for Finance, has created a Covid contingency fund of €4 billionn,” the department added.
“This fund is to provide certainty and flexibility for the public finances should the situation with the virus deteriorate further. If further funding for live entertainment is required then Minister Catherine Martin TD will seek additional support from the Covid contingency fund.”
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Burden of proof .’ i didn’t place that in my bin ,Must have happened when it was sitting on the public road ‘ can’t be enforced
Producers of products must be made to use all recyclable packaging in what ever goods they produce. The end user is always getting screwed. If all packaging was fully recyclable this would eliminate this issue.
It’s also totally impractical. All the bins get chucked into the same compartment on the truck! They may spot something sitting on the top of your rubbish but that’s the best they could do. Will they look through your rubbish as it falls from the bin into the truck?? So stupid… SAD!
Another objectionable attempt by this off shore controlled company to heap extract more revenue from this privatisation mess.
My bins have to go out at night for 6 am collections. Many people have their bins out front 24/7.
I have actually seen bin toppers putting bags into bins awaiting pick up! One individual wheels his shopping trolley around & tips refuse into bins along his daily walk route!
It is a widespread practice.
The operating Companies should tender by area, to service 100% of households & business within service zones. Any addresses without service agreements are immediately exposed for investigation & enforcement. Fewer trucks, lower traffic congestion & emissions. Common sense, not very evident in this privatisation.
As for pricing by weight, this penalises family households & should be banned.
Let Greyhound & any other refuse outfits spend some of their huge revenues on public education on segregation & recycling, instead of harassing the householders who have actually signed up with them.
@William well put. Why has their never been anyone fined for not being signed up to a bin company? A family I know have never paid for bins and laugh at us who do
When did the Irish ever get a good deal from privatisation of a service. It always leads to degradation of service and increase in costs for end users.
@brian boru:
Yeah, just remember back to how good things were when Eircom had a monopoly on the telephones and the ESB with the electricity. High prices and poor service. Now we have choice and competition on pricing with organisations constantly trying to offer a better product or service to win our business.
@Nick Allen: Take a look at your next phone and ESB bill and ask yourself are you getting value or just paying for armies of marketing teams to sell you the same product from multiple vendors – ESB and Eircome
Bin all these moneygrabbing private companies and lets have our old council collections again.
The more people are ripped off the more flytipping will take place.
@brian boru:
I use Virgin for my phone & broadband, I have a 360MB contract and if I connect by ethernet I get a download of about 380 and and upload of about 50, by Wifi I get download of 300 and upload of about 35. I also get all my calls free and this includes landline, mobile and international to about 50+ countries which includes UK, America, Australia and most of Europe. I have online access for my billing and an APP on my phone to let me use my landline account from anywhere in the world when i am on Wifi. On top of this I have a mobile ph account for 20euro a month which gives me free calls, unlimited texts and lots of download over the 4G network.
I happily pay 60 euro for this landline & broadband service plus the extra 20 for the mobile. I think this is very good value
How much did greyhound pay for this ridiculous article? “Forced” to hire 25 staff me bollix.
So there saying food waste can’t be put in black bins now. Taught brown bin were optional
Well it would be great to see my bin supplier oxygen actually offer a brown bin.
I dont condemn putting the wrong rubbish in the wrong bins but its a business idea from greyhound. Every person they try to fine will just switch company. And im sure greyhounds competitors love hearing this news. P.S Bin your rubbish responsibly.
You don’t ‘condone ‘
@Alan mulvey:@Alan mulvey: EU law, food waste must go in brown bin or be composted.
The bstards should be buying the stuff off us. The money they make on it.
Bin companies have some neck on them. They want us the customers to do all the donkey work for them, ie sorting out the normal waste, recyclable waste, food waste ect. Then they charge us an arm and a leg to take it away, pay the staff peanuts, and get paid from some company on China or wherever for the recyclable material. Are you sure now there nothing else we could do for you? All this nonsense does is encourage more people to fly tip or burn the rubbish in their back garden.
Mick , don’t forget to wash out all those jars , pots , containers for them too.Would the like us to stick a broom in our hole and wash their trucks whilst they’re outside the door too ?
Don’t be putting ideas in their head Diarmuid.
@mickmc: So True. That is why their is a surge in stove buying. People burning their rubbish and destroying the air quality because of profiteering.
People should have done more to protect our public bin service.
Remember they sent people to jail for protesting against privatisation.
This is yet another example of privatisation screwing the public.
The reason for privatisation was to save the councils money, there are now 10 times the number of vehicles using the roads and the impact on the environment is immeasurable.
The cost of illegal dumping is in the millions every year.
Great work by senior short sighted civil servants yet again.
Simpler times when we had one bin to rule them all
@Panem et Circenses:
Yes the simpler times when we had huge landfills and no recycling and just dumped everything together. Where has it all gone wrong
Next they’ll be measuring our farts to check that they’re within acceptable methane limits.
If they’re able to justify hiring 25 extra staff just to do this, it must be a very profitable idea.
What Greyhound really mean is that the collection charges will be going up no matter what you do. How can Greyhound state that it’s the customer and not his neighbours putting the wrong rubbish in the bins. Are Greyhound going to supply each and every household security cameras and or individual locks on the bins?
Paul Mc agreed, there are people on our road who habitually put their rubbish in other people’s bins, presumable because their landlords don’t provide enough bins for the flats they’re in.
Fart cops, fart cops. Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do when they come for you.
Way to encourage fly tipping, Greyhound! Your prices are already high, now you’re going to impose an additional cost to cover the 25 new “bin inspectors” and then even more of a penalty if you fail? No, thanks- I see why people flytip and just spread rubbish all over.
Hey Garreth, just wondering if you could clear something up? What’s the going rate for a “journalist” to publish a press release with a few tweaks and to make it look like a news article, but without any research or criticism? Asking for a friend.
I refuse to use the brown bin for food because it’s disgusting. That little caddy you get for the kitchen is a magnet for ants and fruit flies. Manky!
@Maria Hickey-Fagan:
If you clean it out regularly then you may find the problem with ants etc disappears!
Smart @rse. Of course I cleaned it regularly. During summer months the problem did not go away. Especially the fruit flies.
I’m not with Greyhound, but could you line it with a plastic bag?
I really hope people vote with there feet on this and don’t wait around to be fined 30 euro for a genuine mistake or someone who has passed your bin and discided to put something in it . The journey has made them look like they are doing the right thing .but in real life greyhound are paying 25 people to go around and take pictures of stuff in bins and leave it to be collected and after its collected then they send out the fines. instead of marking bin not to collected …. I rang the staff in greyhound the other day and they where not very helpfull sounded like they have a lot of people on about the same thing .
just put it all in general
they can sort it at depot.
it’s their business to sort it and recycle it, it’s how they make money. but they have convince most of us to do their work for them
and now they want to fine you for not helping them.
Our local bin company Greenstar just dump the recyclable bin in to the truck with the general waste. I asked the lads at the back and they made a joke and laughed.
Report them Carol.
Looks like a lot of people here want the “right to be a lazy git” and put messy unsorted rubbish into any bin they choose. Maybe it’s just a lack of understanding of just how expensive it is to sort this mess once it’s made. Once the mess is made someone has to pay for it. Either the messer pays in fines or the bills go up of the taxpayer/council pays.
IMO it makes makes sense for each individual user to sort their own mess and if they don’t they should be paying someone else to do it. Ireland has signed up to all these environmental regulations and there’s no point in pretending we can just chuck an unsorted mess of rubbish into a landfill like days of old. Maybe if we had incineration we could be lazy and chuck everything into 1 or 2 bins, but in the main we don’t so we can’t. This anger at bin companies for implementing common sense rhymes with the anger with charging for excessive use of water.
Greyhound looking for another way to implement price increases
Ha ha Dubs
Ha Ha Dirty lazy dumb Dubs.. want everything given and some else to pay. Little sense of individual responsibility.
I suppose Greyhound will find 99% of customers will be offenders. Jaysus thats a handy few bob.
Bin cops, bin cops. Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do when they come for you.
I know of a household in riverside estate Galway who doesn’t have bins and put there waste including fire ash into other people’s bins and over the wall at end of estate.lf they are reading this be warned your time is up.
Greyhound has been robbing its customers for years forcing deposits not even asking if I wanted to put a deposits down just took it And now it comes and attack s its customers again who in there right mind would pay this fine or stay with them I pay you Do what you want with it pi…… off And I pay monthly for services good bye greyhound
About time
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