Yard Act announce new venue for London gig after Brixton Academy closure

31 January, 2023

Yard Act perform at London's Village Underground

Yard Act have announced details of a new venue for their upcoming London gig following the closure of Brixton Academy.

O2 Academy Brixton will remain closed until April following the fatal crowd crush at an Asake concert at the venue in December – with a number of gigs beyond that now being relocated.

People outside the venue on December 15 were able to force their way into the show, leading to overcrowding and the gig being cancelled midway through. Two people died after being caught in the crush – 33-year-old Rebecca Ikumelo and 23-year-old security staff Gaby Hutchinson. A third attendee, aged 21, is still in hospital in a critical condition.

After O2 Academy Brixton’s licence was temporarily suspended until January 16, Lambeth Council said that they would meet again on that date to discuss the future of the venue. Before the meeting, a spokesperson for Academy Music Group (AMG) – the company that runs the venue – said it would stay closed voluntarily until April while investigations continue. The meeting then saw the announcement that the venue’s licence would also be suspended for three months.

Writing on Twitter today (January 31) about their upcoming gig scheduled for Brixton, Yard Act confirmed it would now move to another venue.

“It’s been coming,” the band tweeted. “Due to the ongoing issues and uncertainty around Brixton, we’ve had to shift our show there to another venue. We will now be doing an end-of-the-Overload-touring bow at the Troxy on the same date 4 May.”

You can get any remaining tickets to see Yard Act here.

Following the closure of Brixton Academy, many of the gigs at the venue are being rescheduled to new venues across London.

Dates in January for Wallows, Sleep Token and PVRIS were all moved to Eventim Apollo, while Dry Cleaning and Beartooth‘s March gigs will now take place at The Roundhouse and OVO Arena Wembley, respectively. Röyksopp, meanwhile, was one act who took the same decision as Yard Act, moving their show on February 19 to Troxy and re-selling tickets as a result, due to the venue being smaller than Brixton Academy.

You can see the full list of gigs that have moved from Brixton Academy to new venues here.

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