News
After over a year of silence in The O2 Arena, due to the COVID19 pandemic, it was fantastic news that AEG would be hosting The Brit Awards 2021 as a live event. An audience of 4,000, of which 2,500 were keyworkers plus a guest, saw a show that included Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Elton John, Olly Aexander.and hosted by Jack Whitehall.
We were proud to have been appointed to support Polling Stations on 6th May for Haringey. This was a short mobilisation period for 63 Polling Stations within the Borough and over 130 staff due to the length of the day's operation. Ben Burrows, our Head of Security and Stewarding, implemented the planning process and managed the central control on the day to ensure a first class service was delivered, ably supported by Craig Keeley (who also oversaw the Arsenal Europa League fixture in the evening) and a special commendation to Jamil Miah, currently providing Resourcing maternity Cover, who managed the Resourcing of this operation on the day.
Whilst we cant wait for crowds to return and get back to business as normal, it was interesting to reflect back over the Easter weekend and compare it to the same weekend before COVID in 2019. Surprisingly, we actually put out more shifts this year than we did in 2019. Strange times indeed.
As with racing, football and rugby have also continued behind closed doors, with a short respite with small crowd numbers, it must have been incredibly disheartening and costly for both football and rugby to have conducted so much preparation and planning to allow crowds back, only to find those plans dashed. Whilst we await Boris Johnson's road map back, we are sure that these plans will be put to good use before full return.
Horse Racing, under BHA guidelines, has managed to continue since last summer when it was re-introduced behind closed doors, went to limited and controlled crowds and then back to behind closed doors.
Whilst we spent a lot of 2020 carrying in to this year supporting a number of Testing Sites, it is pleasing that 3 Vaccines have now been approved and vaccinations have started, meaning there is light at the end of the tunnel. Whilst this is still a long way off, we need to ensure that we are working safely so wearing face masks, socially distancing and washing hands is still paramount whilst in the work place.