My 2021 Brits experience and how the ceremony has changed
My 2021 Brits experience and how the ceremony has changed
This year’s Brits were not flooded with celebrities and customers rushing in, everyone was quite overjoyed to just be out of the house and finally back to some sense of normality. Did you tune in at 8pm live on ITV?
Customers this year were very excited to be at a live show with just no social distancing, the first pilot event from the government that didn’t require any masks indoors. History was made at this year’s Brits, being the first live music event in a venue in 2021, plus Little Mix won the ‘Best Group’ award and became the first female band to ever win the award.
This year’s red carpet was a closed set held at the o2 car park where celebrities were greeted by just press and photographers. Nothing but limited paparazzi invited to take photos, most of them may have been the record labels preferred photographers, because everyone working at the event had to be tested prior to attending.
All attendees and staff working at the event were required to have a PCR Covid-19 test done prior to the event but also 5 days after the event. This event was part of the government’s test event and the o2 had submitted an application early last year to become one of the first venues to be tested in case the pandemic had reduced to allow live music events to start again.
Who was invited?
Over 3,000 key workers were invited to attend the prestigious ceremony this year as a big thank you for the tremendous help during the pandemic. Level 1 audience was filled with key workers and some were allowed to bring a plus one or guest with them, the crowd had midwives, nurses and doctors. On top of that this year’s music industry guests had been reduced greatly to just artists, managers and sponsors. Normally all the presenters from ITV and radio stations also attend the ceremony, but only key celebs such as Joel Dommet, Gemma Collins were invited to the ceremony this year.
My experience
For me, it was strange seeing very few record executives heading up to the VIP boxes and normally there is a major artist after artist walking through the doors as I get ready to search. Normally I am very lucky to have a chat with Dr Ranj, Olly Murs, rappers and random celebrities walking through the door. But this year I spotted John Newman, Gemma Collins, Dipesh Parmar (Island President) and comedian Joel Dommett. This completely changes the atmosphere of the event as The Brits are known to be the hub for the music industry, it’s where new artists get their big break and where genius collaborations happen every year. But this year felt different and quite empty. A great feeling to be back at the O2 Arena in the heart of London however it was weird being back after 14 months, it was the best feeling but also a strange feeling being back around thousands of people again.
This year the venue was even more secure where staff and guests were only permitted to go to their designated areas, no mixing for uneccessary reasons. Guests were asked to kindly stay in their seats but of course come out onto the concourse if they wanted to purchase food or drinks, but there were very limited concessions open. No merchandise this year as well, the Brits isn’t known to do much merchandise but limited programmes are usually sold as a momento. No sign of this at all this year. However, staff were all given a black face mask with the new Brits logo. *add brits face mask here
Overall I cannot wait to be back at the O2 seeing overjoyed fans, live events and feeling the music rush through my skin as the bass vibrates the whole arena. Let’s hope the results from this test event are positive and we can all go back to our jobs plus start attending concerts again.
