It has been confirmed that the historic London music venue, 02 Academy Brixton, is set to re-open following a hearing from Lambeth Council.
The venue was closed for several months following a stampede outside the venue on the night of an Asake concert last December, in which two people died and major questions were asked of the security of the venue as it became known that the security had previously let those without tickets into the venue.
The decision to reinstate the venues license was made at a review hearing at Lambeth Town Hall on September 11th and 12th. The decision was made on the premise that 77 new conditions had to be met to ensure the safety of the venue.
Lambeth Councillor Dr Mahamed Hashi released a statement saying: “Stronger doors, new crowd management systems, more detailed risk assessments, a new ticketing system, a new centralised control and command centre as well as new security and management at the venue, were among the measures proposed by AMG at the hearing to support their aim of regaining the venue’s licence so it can reopen, and making sure we never see a tragedy again like the one there in December 2022.
AMG will now need to put in place the agreed measures to enable the reopening of this much-loved local venue, which is a key part of Brixton’s cultural heritage and has been enjoyed by millions. We’ll be working to closely monitor all licensing conditions to ensure that safety is at the forefront of the venue’s future operations.”
A timeline for the venue’s reopening has yet to be announced as well as the nature of the test events that will test the venue’s new procedures and systems.
AMG (Academy Music Group), the company that runs the venue released a statement saying: “Over the past nine months the venue’s importance to the local community and the live music scene in the UK has been made clear through first-hand professional testimony, campaigns, and petitions as well as economic assessments demonstrating the financial impact to the surrounding area caused by the closure,”
“Academy Music Group is determined to learn all appropriate lessons from the night of December 15, 2022. Working at a senior level with experts across all disciplines, AMG presented a comprehensive, multi-faceted response for the licensing authorities to support their case for the safe and secure reopening of the venue. We appreciate having had the opportunity to present these detailed proposals and revised licence conditions at the hearing and we are very grateful they met with the approval of the Licensing Sub-Committee.”
Many will be happy to hear that the historic venue is reopening, as evidenced by a petition that was launched last April called #SaveBrixtonAcademy, in which over 116,000 people signed the petition including big names like The Prodigy.
