Two days before theatres up and down the country are allowed to throw open their doors to full pre-covid capacity with, legally speaking, no restrictions they are releasing the rules they will follow to regain audience trust.
Venues up and down the country are instructing people not to attend with covid symptoms, some such as ATG Theatres which manages a huge number of west end and local venues are even instructing people to show either their vaccine status or proof of a negative test or antibodies before gaining entry.
While some venues are giving audiences assurance that should they not be able to attend, they will not lose out, others such as ATG, Sell a Door and other venues are not giving audiences peace of mind when they book tickets. Instead, they either pay more money for their tickets in the way of an add on or they face losing all their money if they are forced to isolate or can’t attend due to coming down with covid.
It does seem a very odd situation if venues think that this gives audiences the confidence to return. Why would you pay £100 for a pair of tickets, knowing that due to the flare up of the virus there’s a real possibility either you will come down with the virus or be forced to isolate?
Similarly, why should you have to pay an additional charge just to give, what in my opinion, is a basic level of customer support and fair play.
It may be argued its not fair on the venue to burden the risk, I pose this instead…how does the venue lose out by moving the seats like for like or giving the audience member a voucher that needs to be spent in three months? It’s a win for the venue, it’s a win for audiences and most importantly it gives customers confidence to book tickets.
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