The O2 Academy Brixton is set to reopen in the future, Lambeth council have permitted.
South London’s 5,000-capacity venue needs to meet 77 “extensive and robust” new safety measures in order to open its doors and host events once again, following the tragic crowd crush at Asake’s concert last December that saw Rebecca Ikumelo and Gabrielle Hutchinson lose their lives. A Met Police investigation into whether any criminal offences were committed is still ongoing.
After a two-day hearing last week, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, Mahamed Hashi, shared in a statement that there will be a focus on safety for both visitors and staff at the O2 Academy Brixton, with new measures to be put in place such as “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”.
The Academy Music Group (AMG) will announce a plan and timeline for reopening, along with a series of ‘test events’.
“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,” say AMG in a statement.
“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.”
You can read the full decision here.
