Thousands of partygoers were allowed to enjoy the first legal nightclub evening without Covid restrictions since the pandemic began.
The ‘First Dance’ trial event was staged by Circus at Bramley Moor Dock, Liverpool as part of an events research programme. It aims to study the possibility of safely reopening small and large-scale events without social distancing and face coverings.
Every reveller was required to present proof of a negative Covid test prior to being allowed in.
I am supremely excited just to play music and be with people under normal conditions, and there’s also definitely one eye on the reality of what we’ve all experienced over the last 14 months, the difficulties and the deaths that everyone’s gone through. So I’m definitely thinking of that too
DJ Yousef, from Circus
We’re really going to help to understand what works to keep people safe at events like this one and that will allow us to feed in the evidence that will help us reopen the economy in the future
Director of Public Health, Matthew Ashton
Pilot events – what happens next?
We caught up with scientific researchers Professor Iain Buchan, Professor Marta Garcia-Finana and Dr Michael Humann from the University of Liverpool to find out what they hope to achieve.