London gig venue O2 Academy Brixton is to remain closed until April as a police investigation continues into the crowd crush that happened at the venue last month.
The venue’s license was initially suspended by Lambeth Council on December 22, up to January 16. The suspension period has now been extended while further assessments take place around the crush, which happened on December 15 during a gig by the Afrobeats artist Asake. Two people, Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson, died in the days after the crush.
O2 Academy Brixton’s owner, Academy Music Group, released a statement saying it was "committed to understanding what happened and cooperating with the various investigations that are under way, including providing full cooperation to the police in the conduct of their inquiries."
The extended closure of O2 Academy Brixton will mean that upcoming gigs there from the likes of Orbital, Caroline Polachek and Suede will have to be postponed or moved to another venue.
Eyewitness reports from those who attended the gig on December 15 said security at the venue had been fairly lax on the night, while many of those inside also believed the venue was over-capacity.
One witness, who asked not to be named, told The Guardian that the concert was "the most poorly organised thing I’ve seen," and added that there was no security there to [ask people to] form an orderly queue," referring to the crushing from the venue’s entrance that is believed to have caused the incident.
