What was the point of the Governments pilot events?
My heart sank because its almost like getting to the end of a really long marathon where youve been starved of anything to eat and drink the whole time  metaphorically speaking but almost literally in terms of Government support  and you get to the end of the line and youve got to go back, he says. Its particularly baffling as his pilots went without a hitch. Infections, he says, were nominal and the warehouse was almost the safest place in the UK that weekend. It proved that we are capable of moving forward, Yousef says. The DCMS was absolutely blown away by the way the event was run and how attendees did everything asked of them. In their view it was an absolute gold standard of everything they could have ever wished for. And the cases were almost nominal. Yet here we are being told that, by the way, we have to wait. Im not going to sit here and say there are no other variables  we need to talk about the Delta variant. We need to live in the real world, but so do the Government, he says. Using another analogy, he compares it to winning the World Cup but being denied the victory ceremony. It is a real shame that [the pilots have] not led to the kind of ceremonial opening on June 21. A We did it! he says. I do think thats a real disappointment, actually.  Yousef doesnt regret doing the event. Far from it. He says it proved that the nightclub industry is serious, capable, agile and reasonable. It made the whole industry shine, he says, adding hed go round the twist if he only focused on the negatives. However hes not sure that the Government realises just how big a business dance music is  and how economically damaging continued lockdown is. Ive spoken to a few ministers and they blatantly dont know the difference sometimes between Dave Double-Decks in the local boozer and, say, The Prodigy headlining Glastonbury, Yousef says. Others in the entertainment industry have questioned whether the pilots positive results have been taken into account. Michael Kill, the chief executive of the Night-Time Industries Association, says: The immense efforts of industry operators to deliver club and festival environments as part of the Events Research Programme was hailed as a success on all sides, but you have to question whether the evidence from these events was wholly considered by Government.