A CHOIR is being forced to perform in car park due to ‘ridiculous’ restrictions which only allow professionals and schoolchildren to sing indoors.

Members of Andover Ladies Choir were excited to return to singing together at Thruxton Memorial Hall but the day after restrictions were eased on May 17, the government suddenly changed rules for amateur singers, allowing only six to meet inside.

“We feel like we’re being discriminated against for no reason. Football crowds can sing a chant in their thousands, but we can’t with sanitisation and temperature checks with more than six,” Clare Oliver, the choir’s musical director told The Advertiser.

As the third national lockdown began to come to an end, industry bodies approached the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and were assured that choral singing would return in person from Monday, May 17.

However, 36 hours afterwards, updated guidance was released, saying that amateurs can only sing in groups of six indoors.

Clare said that she knows choirs who sung on May 17, only to find their actions were illegal 24 hours later. She described the situation as Kafkaesque.

“The choral world has gone bananas,” said Clare.

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