Scott Morrison announces easing of venue capacity restrictions, permits downscaled festivals
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12.06.2020

Scott Morrison announces easing of venue capacity restrictions, permits downscaled festivals

Words by Tom Parker

Big news from the Prime Minister.

A big announcement has come from today’s National Cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison shedding light on the next step for easing restrictions on concert venues, stadiums and festivals.

In the first section of his address following the meeting, Morrison said that “as part of step three, for events in stadia or other [outdoor] venues of that nature, with a capacity of 40,000 or less, to enable attendance at those events which are ticketed and are seated – and all the social distancing rules apply – for up to 25 per cent of the capacity of those venues to take patrons”.

This comes as part of phase three in the government’s gradual easing of social restrictions, set to be enforced in July. There is no specific date slated for this as yet and it will be conducted at the discretion of Australia’s respective states and territories.

While Morrison said this would apply to outdoor festivals, he reiterated the fact that they would have to be seated and ticketed and used “large folk festivals where people sort of roam around from tent to tent and gathering to gathering” as a situation that wouldn’t be permitted.

The limit of 100 people on indoor gatherings will also be removed. As part of phase three, there will be no restriction on numbers inside venues as long as there is four square metres of space allocated to each person.

The situation with nightclubs is still up in the air with Morrison emphasising the risk associated with these venues: “That is not on the agenda. We’ve seen overseas that’s one of the areas of failure.”

Keep your eyes peeled as more information comes to light.

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