Gigs In Singapore Slide Backwards With Further Capacity Cuts And Ban On Live Singing

Gigs in Singapore have taken another hit with the announcement of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) [Credit: Collective Minds]

Just as the local music scene was beginning to make progress, it’s now taking a few steps backwards no thanks to the rise of community cases. Announced on 14 May 2021, the city has tumbled into what’s called “Phase 2 (Heightened Alert)”, and it is as ominous as it sounds.

The main takeaways from this include a reduction of group size from five to two, the default arrangement of working from home, and the suspension of dining-in; all of which kick in from 16 May to 13 June. As the cynic in you would imagine, live music concerts haven’t been spared from this barrage of bad news either.

From 16 May to 13 June, gigs will only be allowed to have 50 (without testing) and 100 (with testing) attendees [Credit: Collective Minds]

Events, including musical ones, are being forced to scale down. Now, events are only allowed to have 50 attendees without pre-event testing and 100 attendees with pre-event testing. This pales in comparison when you consider the leeway concerts were given earlier in March, when concerts were allowed to have 250 (without testing) and 750 (with testing) attendees. Additionally, the latest news reveal that live singing and playing of wind instruments will also be suspended during this phase, eliminating the possibility for many bands and ensembles to even perform in the first place.

The status of nightclubs remains the same, with the blanket ban on DJ performances still in place. This news does, however, damage clubs that pivoted to F&B establishments like Rails, Upstairs and Capital by Zouk, since they now have to conform to the rules on dining-in.