The Brit Awards ceremony at London's O2 Arena got underway this evening with an audience of 4,000 people as part of the British government's live events pilot scheme.
It is the first major indoor music event with a live audience held in London in over a year.
Britain's pop music honours, for which the audience will not have to wear masks or socially distance, are taking place at the 02 arena on the River Thames as the country emerges from Covid-19 lockdown.
The ceremony is part of the British government's Events Research Programme aimed at establishing whether big events can be held in closed environments without social distancing.
"It's a really important stepping stone on the way back to recovery for the whole of the live music industry," Steve Sayer, general manager of the O2, told Reuters, adding that it had been 14 months since the venue last hosted a gig.
Ticket holders, of which 2,500 are key workers and their guests, showed proof of a negative lateral flow test result to enter the venue, which has a capacity of around 20,000.
They will needed to take a test afterwards and provide contact details as part of the UK's Covid test and trace system.
"It feels surreal because it's been so long," Zunaira Faiz, who works at a north London hospital, said upon arriving at the O2.
"It almost feels like I'm experiencing something nostalgic because we haven't been able to do this for so long."
Like elsewhere, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down music events with live audiences around the world.
Under British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's phased roadmap out of lockdown, entertainment venues can re-open their doors next week.
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