Proposed Events Re-Opening Guidelines

The document provides guidelines for several types of events: weddings, corporate activations, large conferences, large-scale public and government events, religious events and music festivals. Within each event, safety protocols for venues, crews, presenters, vendors and others involved in the creation and execution of events are covered.

Roshan Abbas, President, Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA), said, “These SOPs have been meticulously planned taking into account guidelines issued by the government and multiple global associations, and have been planned across every vertical the event industry represents. These SOPs comprise comprehensive risk assessments, safety checks and logistical planning for every event, so including a COVID-19 mitigation plan as an extension of existing event planning mechanisms is easily achievable. The USP of this document is its exhaustive detailing and transparency which covers the entire life cycle of an event right from its inception to execution and post; we have covered it all under WHO norms.”

As the Indian government implements the fifth phase of re-opening the Indian economy, cinema halls stand out as a highlight of gathering spaces. While a news report from Bloomberg-Quint says that active COVID cases in India decline and audiences are wary of collecting in numbers, the time to set safety standards to prevent future waves of infection is now. The SOPs are a timely initiative and an attempt by private interests to take charge of the re-opening of their business.

In September, EEMA presented the SOPs to the Maharashtra government – a proactive move in an environment that could have benefited with clearer guidelines from the government. Abbas said, “It’s a happy moment for us as the government’s decision to re-open events in Unlock 5.0 has finally been declared. We began with a unified voice, reached out to the government with EEMA’s proposed set of SOPs that were created by our EEMA COVID Task Force, and were recognised by various state governments. I congratulate the entire events fraternity and all stakeholders for this good news. The responsibility now lies on our shoulders to take this forward and conduct safe events in accordance with EEMA’s proposed SOPs and government guidelines.”

Find more resources for festival organisers here.