Mostly through increased daytime drinking and online pub quizzes. More seriously though, we are doing the best with what we can do. As a company, we've furloughed our team (including our zero hours club reps), leaving just me to maintain things. It's a cliché, but we really are trying to make the best of a bad situation. Some of the team are using the time for training in things like graphic design. I've taken up iOS development to help fill the time and add structure to the days. But it goes without saying, we miss the social side of the events business and interacting with our amazing customers and team.
Despite being an expert armchair epidemiologist as we all are now, I would say it's probably too early to say. However, I will admit we were f*cked off when the government fudged the closures to begin with by sending the mixed message of "don't go out" but then said clubs and pubs could still open.
This created a bizarre and potentially dangerous situation where we had a CRISIS still on for 18th March, but with future ones cancelled or postponed. That event was only cancelled on the day, when it became clear that it was going to be borderline irresponsible to open. We felt the government decision at the time was a total cop-out and they needed to go straight in with the closures. Whether this has had a real effect on infections, we will have to see when we are clear of COVID-19 and the data scientists can properly strip the different variables out.
In a word - No. We have general plans in place for closing on the night for an emergency or evacuation. Things like fire, someone taken seriously ill, road closures, road traffic accidents outside, things like that. But the unwritten assumption is that you will be back in action pretty rapidly. Those types of scenarios are also insured. COVID-19 was not, so it's fair to say we've taken a hit.
Refunding tickets has been a painful experience. Fortunately, we do ringfence ticket money, so we don't have access to it till after an event occurs. This way we can't spend money we don't have. That said, we've been trying to postpone rather than cancel events where possible and give people tickets to new events instead. Problem being, we don't know when the next event will be so we've been stalling for time.
CRISIS events that were scheduled for the 18th and 25th March have been refunded. The 1st April All-Nighter is pending as we are hoping for a June All-Nighter replacement if restrictions are lifted. If and when we get new information from the government that says this definitely won't happen then we'll go ahead and process those refunds too.
Booking fees are, however, being lost. In normal circumstances they are refunded as courtesy, but frankly the ticketing providers cannot afford to do so on this scale. Credit card companies and payment providers charge both for processing a transaction and refunding it. A few refunds here and there we can afford it. For refunding all ticket sales, however, it just isn't financially viable.
We are loving TikTok right now so spending many an hour swiping through and creating new videos. We recently did a competition to win a black card and had so many great entries we gave out 3 winners instead. You can check us out @wearecrisis.
We wanted to do a big live stream of CRISIS, however, it's difficult/impossible to get the right copyrights on the music. The license that allows for the playing of music in the club doesn't extend to Facebook or Instagram. If we go live on those platforms, we can have our accounts shutdown by the big music studios. Personal accounts can get away with it, but not businesses. This is a shame because we would have loved to have done a Wednesday Quarantine special.
My heart says June, my head says September. Following what's in the media, I think it's reasonable to assume that schools will probably open within a month. Whether they will include Universities in this I am not sure. Since University students don't prevent their parents from going to work, I would lean to them not opening. Moreover, even if Nottingham University does reopen, I find it unlikely the social scene will have been allowed to reboot. Looking around other countries, nightclubs and mass participation events like ours will be the last on the list to come back.
That said, I am hopeful, and the second we get a green light we will re-open and I don't care if it falls on a Sunday night, CRISIS will be back immediately.
I would hope June so we can do a big finish for everyone graduating this year - "The Class of Covid-19" as I'm sure they will forever be known. This would also enable Cock-Soc to go ahead and generally allow a week of partying which is part of finishing University and saying goodbye to people.
If this doesn't happen, we will do our best to do at least one big CRISIS in the summer, possibly in Nottingham, possibly in London if people no longer have their student accommodation available to them. We will put it out there to our social following as we near the time to decide where and when.
We are already in conversations with the Union about what events might be possible at what stage in the Calendar.
We might finally update the playlist if you're lucky! More seriously though, it depends on how much notice we get. If we know a couple of weeks in advance, then we would ramp up production to insane levels. That said, on the very first one, it's going to be all about the people - An electric atmosphere of everyone reconnecting for the first time in months. It will be incredible. If anything, we should keep it as simple as possible and leave you guys to it.
We are lucky enough to sell out every week but I'm sure we can make it even better. Our main goals for next year are:
I feel for anyone who has suffered the loss of a loved one in this pandemic. I'd encourage anyone who has been affected, whether this is through grief, or the change to our daily lives to reach out to some of the wonderful mental health care providers that this country has to offer. It's ok to not be ok.
Those of us in a less dire state, perhaps just suffering from being boxed up at home with the parents, it won't last forever. And as our new national hero Captain Tom said "the sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away".