Thousands of gigs across the country will be cancelled due to the government's four-week delay to the roadmap out of lockdown.

At present, grassroots music venues such as The Horn in St Albans are only able to stage socially distanced shows with limited audience sizes and COVID-safe measures in place.

At Step 4, they would have been allowed to host full capacity concerts without social distancing measures.

Following the Prime Minister's announcement of 'Freedom Day' being put back from June 21 to July 19, The Horn posted on its social media channels: "We are absolutely gutted to hear this as I’m sure you were too."

The Victoria Street venue's booking and promotion team is in contact with all the acts booked between June 21 and July 19 to look at rescheduling their performances.

"Once a new date is confirmed ticket holders will be emailed with details of the new dates," The Horn's statement added.

"We will be inviting more amazing acts to perform socially distanced shows. Please keep showing your support to the artists who help to make us what we are.

"Whilst the news is devastating to grassroots venues like us and hundreds of others across the UK, we will keep on fighting to ensure that you will be able to return to watch a gig without social contact restrictions.

"Until we can do that we would love to see you at a socially distanced gig, or coming in for food and drinks."

The St Albans venue has already started to announce new dates for shows impacted and ticket holders should receive an email from the ticket company that the booking was made with. For the current event listings check The Horn's website.

Music Venue Trust (MVT) says the delay to the reopening at full capacity of grassroots music venues in England is "a crippling blow to the sector".

A MVT statement said: "Over 4,000 shows will be cancelled, losing tens of thousands of people, many of them unable to earn for over 15 months, the chance to get back to work.

"Huge amounts of work will need to go into rescheduling, cancellations, rebooking, refunds and managing customers, staff and artists. The delay will cost the sector £36 million, adding to the mounting pile of debt which this crisis has created."

While the MVT acknowledges the need to protect public health, the charity's statement added: "The continued restrictions to culture are a serious blow to the grassroots music venue sector, with potential damage to hundreds of businesses, thousands of staff and tens of thousands of workers.

"The government should immediately recognise the risk of serious harm being done to people’s lives, business, jobs and livelihoods and respond with swift, decisive action. The clock is ticking. Don’t fail now."