Cafés and pubs are preparing outside tables, but some fear vaccine hesitancy and new variants will mean the fun is short-lived
On Brighton seafront, it is all hands to the pump with just days to go before the grand reopening. The sun, beating down from a cloudless sky, reflects off the sea as Steve Simpson, owner of Brighton Music Hall, directs operations. All along the front, it feels like a brand new open-air economy is being built in a sudden release of pent-up energy.
A van piled with dozens of new chairs arrives and Simpson’s team helps unload them. “We are re-doing this whole area so we can accommodate hundreds of people in the open air,” he says. “We have a new outside stage, new giant canopies, new heaters, new beach huts, new plants.
