Gareth Shelton, co-found er, The London Art Bar

“The London Art Bar is an event space and cocktail bar between Holborn and Chancery Lane. We opened just after the pandemic and rather than being a bar which happens to run events, we’re very much an event space that happens to have a bar. Most of our activity is screenings or sip-and-paint events, meet-ups or anything else that’s a little bit different.

“What we like to do for our screenings is make events a bit immersive. For instance, when we screen the movie Pride in June, there’ll be rainbows everywhere, or in the past when we’ve hosted Eurovision screenings, there are flags from all participating countries around the venue.

“We’re screening the Sunday of Glastonbury Festival – sort of in place of Eurovision screenings, where the contest has become controversial – and planning a full ‘indoor festival’ from 1:30 on the 29^th of June.

“We’ll recreate the festival vibe with a few haystacks for seating (which I think our cleaner will resent us for the next day) and swap glassware for paper cups, so it feels like you’re at a festival. I think it’ll be a really fun day. We haven’t hired a portaloo for the day though – I think our customers will thank us for that!

“I think one of the things we’ve seen after the pandemic is that people buy tickets for stuff a lot more last minute than they used to so it can be a bit of a gamble, unless you find the perfect cultural moment. For example, we hosted a watch party for the finale of The Traitors earlier this year which was a sell-out.

“Glastonbury is somewhere you go with friends, and the music brings us all together. It’s an occasion where people can really join in. The whole idea is that you’re watching this with other people.

“Particularly in a world where people work from home and so many are reporting loneliness. They’re struggling to meet and date people, so it’s lovely to have a space where you can come together, meet strangers and have a shared experience.

“I consider that to be the real value we provide. Whether it’s Glastonbury or Eurovision or The Traitors, the whole idea is that you did this with other people and shared the experience.

“The atmosphere we create with these kinds of events is really important. As an events space, music has always been a huge part of what we do. When we run sip-and-paint events, music is the soundtrack to energise the room. It helps drive the pace of an event.

“We host a lot of music events and when you have a performer with great music and stage presence, the crowd are really engaged which creates a really exciting and kind of warming atmosphere for a venue.

“When we first hosted a gig in the bar just after we’d opened, I thought, oh. This is why we do what we do – that’s a really nice thing for me to remember, so music will always play a crucial role in bringing people together and having the right atmosphere to keep the crowds engaged.”