Just so people are clear, the artists I represent are having performances cancelled right up to Christmas and in many cases until next summer. This is almost all in the U.K. and the US. Rest of Europe are mostly planing to honour/adapt contracts.

Venues in Europe and Asia are opening and allowing audiences in with distancing. Countries with massive state subsidy and support for the arts allow promoters to open at reduced capacity and not lose money.

Many promoters have been putting on large scale performances with up to 50 or more musicians on stage for months, eg Norway since April! Starting with live streams with no audience, and now allowing audiences in.

Of course the funding models in each country differ hugely, but they mostly overcame the ‘problems’ of social distancing on stage very quickly, performing between 1 and 2 meters apart.

The main problem they encountered is getting the audience in safely, and they often need external support to make it work financially. But the performers on stage are not the big issue. So allowing cinemas to open but not performing arts venues is completely non-sensical

In any case, most classical venues are big and open. Much less likely to spread than in small sweaty pubs. And what about cathedral music where choirs are still forbidden. They are so big they are practically outside. How is that less safe than a pub or restaurant?

The studies in Japan, Germany etc have shown that singing is not as risky as that one early US report implied, and is hardly any worse than speaking. So with appropriate mitigation, it seems relatively safe. Especially for smaller choirs with younger, less vulnerable singers

Yes @TomkinsGiles should have said Canada too. And many Australian / NZ promoters are limiting their whole 2021 to artists within those countries. Interesting disparity between English speaking nations and others…

Worth being clear that it isn’t all rosy in mainland Europe, still many problems, reduced budgets, big challenges ahead but it’s a marked difference in approach and outlook