The Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA) hopes that from July, the country will see the “safe and gradual” resumption of events, but not at full capacity, President of the association Howard Keith Debono told The Malta Independent.

Recently, Health Minister Chris Fearne said that Cabinet agreed that “it would eventually be possible for activities to take place and would be restricted for those who would be fully vaccinated.” This would be proven through the vaccine certificate which is set to be announced next week. The minister, however, did not give a date as to when such activities could resume.

The events and entertainment industry has been facing long closures and was initially left in the dark as to when it would be resuming with such activities. However, it appears that positive discussions are underway to gradually kickstart such activities once again.

The president of the MEIA said that people should not expect any of this to take place in June, but "our hope is that as from July, we can start working".

"We always acknowledged that this will probably not be at full capacity, and we never said that we are going to work at full capacity; None of that," Debono remarked.

He said that recently, they put forward a staggered set of proposals "on a path towards normality", as opposed to fully opening the sector at once. Debono said that after meetings with various stakeholders, they gathered the ideas and wrote the proposals addressing them.

"Although I cannot reveal what they were for now, we needed to check if they were aligned with what the government’s plans as well as with what the health authorities recommend; it seems that everybody is on the same page," Debono said. 

However, he pointed out that the final verdict is in the hands of Health Superintendent Charmaine Gauci. 

Regarding the proof of vaccination, which is now more commonly known as the vaccine certificate and which should be announced next week, as the Health Minister indicated, Debono stressed that “they were always in support of the vaccine”.

"As long as we are recognising that Malta is doing well, that we believe in the vaccine, that the vaccine works, and that we have reached herd immunity,” the country should start thinking about opening this sector safely, he remarked.  

Given that the vaccine passport is also around the corner, "we have to recognise and utilise these tools."

Regarding a recent post on Facebook by Jason Micallef which hinted that no events will take place until October, Debono said that Micallef “fabricated” a story, for reasons he is not sure of.

"Jason Micallef fabricated a story when he said that before October, no events will take place. It's not true," Debono said.

"But that is not important now, what is important is that we seem to be agreeing when it comes to most of the proposals; something will happen,” Debono observed.

The MEIA president said that what was perhaps "over-abused" was the phrase "mass events", as it has a connotation of thousands of people being present at an event. 

He also remarked how DJs not being allowed to play at restaurants "was discriminatory". However, he did stress that there was no intended "agenda" against them by the Health Authorities, but it was done simply for safety reasons.

He said that if the Health Authorities want to deliver the message that restaurants should not be turned into dance floors, then the authorities should fine the people and not the DJs, "who are simply earning money".