PETALING JAYA: Male and female audience will be seated separately at university concerts based on the latest guidelines issued by the Ministry of Higher Education.

It is learned that public and private universities and colleges in he country began to receive the latest guidelines on entertainment activities (concerts) held in campus from 30 August.

The 16-page guidelines outline the regulations in details for the process of approving applications, organisers, time for events, artistes, dance groups, music genres, seating arrangements for audience, LED display, musical instruments, posters and others.

On the seating arrangements, organisers must ensure that seating for male, female and family audience is segregated.

The organisers are not allowed to allocate space for the audience to stand while mosh pit is banned.

The organisers are required to prepare seats for audience both inside and outside the hall, and must cooperate with the police and security officers if necessary to manage the audience.

Under the guidelines, artistes are not encouraged to invite the audience to the stage.

On the time allocated for the concert, the guidelines state that it must begin latest by 8.45 p.m. and end before 10.45 p.m.

Concerts held during the day will be decided by the student council of the university.

Male artistes are not allowed to dress in female attire and vice versa.

The organisers are also required to ensure that the artistes do not wear logos or symbols unaccepted by society, including LGBTQ, punk hairstyle, etc.

If the performers are university students or staff, they are not allowed to keep long hair.

Male artistes must tie their hair during the performance. They are not allowed to wear earrings, necklaces or bracelets except for religious reasons.

During sound checks or the performance, male artistes are not allowed to wear shorts.