A group of architects and creatives have presented a Vertical Theatre, a "future-proof" live performance venue designed for socially distancing and is touted as being "tourable" for the pandemic, Broadway World reports. The structure will go up several floors, will have a roof, with optional open sides to allow for optimum airflow and natural ventilation. The audience would be able to sit in balconies that can accommodate groups between 4-12 people or designated social bubbles, and it can hold between 1,200-2,400 fans.

The British government has announced the latest round of its £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, with this new tranche of aid totaling £18 million to be shared by eight arts and cultural organizations, among them Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London, the London Venue Group, and the Academy Music Group. Music Business Worldwide compares this concrete help to the one US venues are being offered.

Canadian venues and performance spaces lit up red Tuesday evening (Sept 22) in a show of support for the live event industry "that is still dark", Indie 88 reports. The #LightUpLive campaign says "the effect of shutting down a $100 billion industry in Canada will have unimaginable impacts on both companies and individuals".

Dallas Observer reports on how venue-owners are coming up with ideas to be able to reopen. Billy Bob’s Texas, the "world’s largest honky-tonk", was closed since March and reopened last weekend, after reclassifying as a restaurant. It normally has a maximum occupancy of 6,000 people, but for now, they’re limiting admissions to 1,200. Temperatures were checked at the door, guests sat at tables spaced 6 feet apart, and masks were worn. Lava Cantina also reopened as a restaurant, it now hosts concerts and movies twice a day, up to six days a week. Space at Lava Cantina is limited to 250 guests compared with their normal 1,800 capacity. Table for four to see Nelly is $400.

"The movie theater business could come back on with a flip of a switch," Audrey Fix Schaeffer, a spokeswoman for the American National Independent Venue Association tells Variety. Live music is much different - "it will take at least four months for touring to be scheduled and for all the venues to be able to have a calendar, because it is such an intricate process". Livestream and socially distanced gigs aren't the solutions either: "The economics don’t work for the vast majority of it, whether it’s streaming, or whether it’s a socially distanced thing, because it costs so much in the overhead that you cannot make it".

Electronic duo Darkstar have shared a simple yet moving tribute to UK venues. The video accompanying their track ‘Blurred' compiles Google Earth footage of music institutions across the UK, reflecting on the ongoing loss of public space and cultural venues.

Music venues in England have been given the green light to reopen from Saturday, BBC reports. Music and performance venues will be able to reopen with socially distanced audiences - venues will have to limit capacity and enforce wearing of masks, Route Note reports. New powers will be introduced to penalise the organisers of mass gatherings including raves. Nightclubs and discos will remain shut. Organisers of illegal raves will face fines of up to £10,000 under new rules. West Midlands Police shut down 125 parties and raves, including one of up to 600 people, last weekend, while London's Metropolitan Police have said that more than 500 illegal events were organised in the city in just one month, Evening Standard reports.

The UK government has pledged £1.57bn of help for country’s museums, galleries, theatres and music venues, hit hard by the big lockdown caused by the Covid-19. The biggest one-off investment in UK culture is welcomed as "surprisingly ambitious" by the industry, Guardian reports.

Radiohead, Nick Cave, The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, PJ Harvey, Johnny Marr, Dizzee Rascal, Primal Scream, Paul McCartney, Dua Lipa, The Cure, are among the huge list of over 1.500 artists who have signed an open letter to the UK government for the #LetTheMusicPlay campaign – demanding immediate action to prevent “catastrophic damage” to the music industry in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown, NME reports. The Music Venue Trust has penned a letter signed by over 560 of their venues calling for a £50 million cash injection to save the “world-beating £5.2billion per year music industry”, allowing these spaces to “hibernate” until October and prevent their permanent closure. If the artists were to add the same amount - which would cost them £30,00 each - those venues would have music easier period ahead of them, right?

"The UK government’s idea of gigging in the age of coronavirus is an unworkable shambles. And no wonder. It’s an experience and an industry of which they have as much first-hand knowledge as a maggot does of mountain biking... Have you seen a Conservative attempting to enjoy music? It’s like watching a drunk goose try to water-ski" - NME's Mark Beaumont writes about his government's plan to save live music venues. There's a real solution - "Luckily the Music Venues Trust, backed by 500 grassroots venues across the country, have come up with their own roadmap to reopening. It’s a far simpler affair, consisting essentially of just two steps. Step one, the Government provides a £50 million fund to ensure all venues can survive until October, the earliest many envision being able to put on viable gigs. Step two, they fuck off out of it".