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Vancouver –
Vancouver concert hall operators say B.C.’s COVID-19 restrictions are pushing their businesses to the brink of closure.
At present, concert halls can only be half full and those present cannot dance and must remain seated.
For Fox Cabaret owner Darlene Rigo, that means her business can only accommodate 90 people inside at the moment, up from a regular capacity of 262.
“We were probably making about a quarter or a third of our usual income right now,†Rigo said.
Rigo says the business relies heavily on the dance floor and doesn’t have enough seating to even hit the 50 percent capacity limit.
“We’re almost at the point where we would lose less money if we completely shut down the business again,” she said.
Rigo and other concert hall owners, such as Rickshaw Theater owner Mo Tarmohamed. shows booked in the spring, anticipating that the capacity limits would be lifted by the fall. British Columbia was initially scheduled to move to Stage 4 of its plan to reopen in early September, but chose not to do so as infections and hospitalizations remained at unacceptable levels.
While capacity restrictions were lifted for restaurants and gyms in previous reopening phases, concert halls were left behind, and now they are paying the price.
“I had to cancel eight shows, and five of them were sold out to our original capacity,†Tarmohamed said.
As of October 24, British Columbians will need to be fully immunized to enter restaurants, gyms, sporting events and concerts.
Rigo hopes this will prompt the province to finally lift capacity and dance floor restrictions.
“If we can’t go back to generating the income that we used to generate, we may not be able to stay in business, unfortunately,†she said.
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