Kia ora Whānau,
Along with the whole country we will be moving to the new Traffic Light System on the 2nd of December from 11.59pm. At BATS we will be implementing the requirement of vaccine certificates as this is the safest way for us to bring artists and audiences together. This decision was made after intensive risk assessments made it clear that without requiring vaccine certificates we would be unable to operate at any level except green - this is not viable for us as a business nor in the best interests for our artists.
This came into effect much sooner than we expected - we thought we had time to put everything in place for the new year. Now we are positioning ourselves to put everything in place and proceed safely with our December shows.
We aim to have our updated COVID-19 Response Plan published on our website on Monday, 29 November. This document will go into detail around what to expect at BATS under each different colour.
As we don’t know which colour Wellington will be at initially, we won’t go into too much detail yet. However, we do have general information to share as to what you can expect when visiting BATS under this new system:
- All BATS Staff will be vaccinated
- All Artists and creative teams onsite will be vaccinated
- All onsite contractors/visitors will be vaccinated
- All show patrons will be greeted at the front door by our lovely Front of House staff and asked to present their vaccine certificates. No certificate, no entry
- Don’t have your pass yet? Find out how to get it here: https://covid19.govt.nz/.../covid-19.../my-vaccine-pass/...
- We ask that you continue to use of the NZ Covid Tracer app QR codes or appropriate record keeping upon entry
- As an extra measure to protect our artists, all patrons will be required to wear their masks while in our theatre spaces
Since the beginning of this pandemic BATS has been committed to bringing artists and audiences together safely. This has meant following the health and safety advice of the Ministry of Health closely and catering this to the unique community group that we are. BATS is also looking at ways they can continue to work with our unvaccinated whānau safely in the new year via measures such as our digital delivery unit. We are seeking more information to clarify how we best work to ensure we honour our organisational and human obligations.
We’re also beginning a series of BATS' COVID-19 Next Steps Zui for our community to come together and discuss the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and how BATS can better hold our artists and audiences as we transition to this new system and beyond.
We hope our community will support us in this decision and work with us to keep doing this thing we love.
BATS xx
