After a nine-month closure, Brixton Academy has been given permission to reopen with a series of “test events”. The venue’s licence was temporarily revoked following a deadly crowd crush in December 2022, but the South London venue was given the go-ahead to reopen by Lambeth Council last week, on the proviso that it meets “77 extensive and robust” safety conditions. These are “each designed to promote and ensure public safety”.
Academy Music Group (AMG), which runs the site, thanked Lambeth Council for granting the reopening licence, saying it was “determined” to learn “all appropriate lessons from the night of December 15, 2022”. AMG presented a comprehensive, multi-faceted response for the licensing authorities “to support their case for the safe and secure reopening of the venue”, it added.
Over the past nine months, the venue’s importance to the local community and the live music industry in the UK has been highlighted. Professional testimonies, campaigns, and petitions as well as economic assessments have demonstrated the financial impact of the closure on the surrounding area. Dates for the first shows are yet to be announced.
In December 2022, two people died in a crush in the venue’s foyer during a show by artist Asake. At the time, police said about 1,000 people surged inside without tickets. Despite the tragedy, the venue retains huge symbolic value. It opened in 1929 and has since hosted David Bowie and The Smiths, among many others
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