Brixton Academy, known for its dome-shaped building, has been closed for more than a year (Picture: SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images)
Brixton Academy, one of London’s biggest music venues that closed in 2022 following a fatal crowd crush, will reopen next month.
Gaby Hutchinson, 23, and Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, died after a thousand-strong crowd tried to force their way into a sold-out concert for Nigerian Afrobeats singer Asake on December 15, 2022.
Footage showed cheering and screaming people, some with their phones raised high, pushing through the main doors of the venue as dozens of others jostled on Stockwell Road.
The venue, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal, had its operating licence suspended by council officials just days later.
In a statement today, O2 Academy Brixton announced that the concert space is reopening on Friday, April 19.
The billing for the opening night includes Nirvana UK, a tribute act to the ragged-voiced grunge rock band Nirvana, as well as The Smiths tribute act The Smyths.
More tribute acts have been booked the following Friday (April 26), according to the venue, ‘with Definitely Mightbe (tribute to Oasis) and UK Foo Fighters (tribute to Foo Fighters)’.
The same statement was also shared on X by the company which owns the Brixton Academy, Academy Music Group (AMG).
Reopening the doors of Brixton Academy comes after Lambeth Council said the venue organisers could apply for a new license in September.
‘But only once it has met 77 extensive and robust new conditions designed to promote public safety, including the safety of both visitors and employees,’ the council’s licensing sub-committee said in a statement at the time.
Among them, stronger doors, phased queuing systems and more robust ticket checks.
The committee had heard at a two-day hearing how some 1,000 people had gathered outside the venue but only some were ticket-holders.
At about 10pm, as the sounds of Asake’s third sold-out cooed from inside, throngs of fans ‘violently’ broke open the front doors of the Academy.
‘With the doors now open, the crowd rushed into the Academy’s foyer under its distinctive dome,’ the committee said in a report. ‘The two individuals who lost their lives were crushed under the weight and force of this surging crowd.’
Two people died in the surge (Picture: LightRocket/SOPA Images)
AMG told the hearing how it had spent £1,200,000 on a raft of safety features while the arena was shuttered.
In a statement to the council at the time, AMG said: ‘We continue to be devastated by the events of last December
‘Our heartfelt condolences remain with the family and friends of Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson. What happened was and is a tragedy and we are committed to ensuring that it can never be repeated.
‘Over the past nine months, the venue’s importance to the local community and the live music scene in the UK has been made clear. Academy Music Group is determined to learn all appropriate lessons from the night of December 15 2022.
‘As the Licensing Sub Committee knows, the venue must implement all the new conditions and will reopen at first with test events. The commitment we give to work in close partnership with all the responsible authorities as we reopen is a serious and sincere one.’
AMG and Lambeth Council have been approached for comment.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.