EVENT organisers and venues will get a share of a £65million funding bailout to help the culture sector.

The Scottish Government announced a breakdown of emergency support following the shutdown of hundreds of venues, shows and events since restrictions were confirmed.

The support was set out amid confusion over how long curbs on full-capacity events will be kept in place for.

The government announced an initial £21 million in support for the culture and events sectors before Christmas and confirmed an additional £44 million last week.

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Venue and cultural businesses have been allocated £31.5 million – almost half the available funding.

Some £2 million has been ringfenced for national companies such as Scottish Ballet, which was forced to halt its production of The Nutcracker.

The live events sector will get £19.8 million worth of support following the widespread cancellation and postponement of concerts, shows and tours.

Individual performers and other freelances will be able to apply for help from a £10 million support fund, while £1.7 million has been set aside for museums, galleries and heritage attractions affected by curbs on crowd numbers.

Over and above the support for the culture and events sectors, the government has pledged £5 million to help nightclubs - which were forced to close last month.

New crowd limits are capped at just 100 for indoor standing events and 200 for all-seater shows.

The government has also effectively banned audiences from dancing anywhere other than weddings under the new measures, which were introduced to try to help keep the spread of Omicron under control.

Scottish culture secretary Angus Robertson said: “The ongoing covid-19 pandemic is once again causing disruption and uncertainty in the culture and events sector, who have already been hit so hard by its impact.

“We have been engaging with the sector about the impact of the Omicron variant and we are fully committed to supporting culture and events while they recover from the impact of covid – and we are aware of just how important they are to Scotland, and indeed the wider recovery from this pandemic.

“These additional funds will help protect the livelihoods of the people working in the sector – and allow us to give further support to freelancers, culture organisations, venues and our national performing companies.”

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Creative Scotland’s chief executive Iain Munro said: “We’re very grateful for this significant increase in emergency funding from the Scottish Government which reflects the severity of the challenges being faced by Scotland’s culture sector.”

Paul Bush, VisitScotland’s director of events, said: “The Scottish Government’s commitment of £19.8 million for Scotland’s events sector is welcome news as the industry continues to deal with the latest challenges presented by the pandemic.”