Hope for return to live music in spring as Pfizer vaccine approved

The UK has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, raising hopes of mass vaccination next year.

If the roll-out is a success, concert life could begin to return to normal by the spring, it is hoped. The vaccine requires two jabs to be given, with a booster dose following three weeks after the first.

The UK government has enough doses for 20m people on order, which are due to be distributed across all four nations, allocated according to population, and there is likely to be fierce competition for supplies as countries around the world try to get their economies back on track. Pfizer has said those whose regulatory clearance comes through quickly will have priority. The EU collectively is said to have reserved enough for 150m as soon as possible. Other vaccines under trial may come to augment the supplies.

In England, the government is hoping to treat up to 1m people per week but that will still mean a long wait for some. The issue for musicians and promoters will be when to expect properly innoculated audiences to be able to attend so that venues can open up to a capacity that brings a decent return. At Opera North, General Director Richard Mantle feels that it could be many months before enough people have been vaccinated to make a real difference to performance plans. 'I think “normal” for us will not happen again until at least September. We have got things we can do through until June once the lockdown is lifted but even for May and June we are going to have to change plans.'

Mark Pemberton, Director of the Association of British Orchestras, says, 'There are two issues I think. The first is vaccines. Clearly if the UK Government can implement a mass vaccination programme, this will help us return to fuller audiences, especially where those audiences tend to be at the greyer end of the scale.

'What has been heartening has been is how much loyalty our audiences have shown during the period in England when concert halls were allowed to reopened, albeit to socially distanced audiences. Mass vaccination will enable us to build on that, and get concert halls back open across the UK.

'The other is mass testing, and here I am a bit of a sceptic. I know that colleagues in theatre are keen on the idea of mass testing as a way of ensuring full houses, but I am struggling to see how it will work. The idea that you can test your audience in the morning, and let in only those who have tested negative, seems to me to be fantastical, with too much potential for error.'

CM will be following the progress and, over the next few days, gathering reactions to the news.