Seeking ways to play amid crisis
Ideas to lock in Tassie live gigs
LIVE music in the C OVID era remains up in the air, with restrictions causing difficulties for touring artists and the audiences who want to watch them.
But a Tasmanian company has a few ideas to get gigs back to Tassie.
Vandemonian Touring director Brendan Self said C OVID had made it difficult to plan ahead, but the company was determined to keep going.
“We’re going to keep doing what we do, keep booking acts hoping they’ll be able to come and perform. If not, we’ll reschedule ,” he said.
Pop heavyweights The Veronicas and indie-rock band The Jungle Giants are slated to play a New Year’s Eve festival on the Hobart waterfront. Mr Self said Tasmania’s economy could thrive if there was a way live music could go ahead.
“Tones and I, for example, is a gig that would inject half a million dollars into the economy, minimum ,” he said.
“It would help hospitality and tourism, because people would come from other parts of the state and spend money while they’ re down here .”
Mr Self said in Western Australia, an idea had been floated to allow artists their own travel bubble.
Artists would fly into the state by themselves, have one person drive them around, they would stay in an Airbnb, play the gig, and then leave the state—all with minimal contact with others.
“It’s like a travel bubble for artists,” Mr Self said.
Concerts and gigs in the coronavirus era have been trialled overseas, with an experimental concert taking place in Germany and a socially distanced gig taking place in the UK, where punters watched on from private, raised metal platforms.
Mr Self said he hoped the state government would explore all options to allow live music to expand.
“We want gigs to go ahead, and we want the opportunity to present that case ,” he said.
A government spokesman said authorities were constantly reviewing the situation of when restrictions may be eased.
“The Tasmanian government looks forward to the time when we can all safely enjoy music concerts and other largescale events. However, we will not put the lives of Tasmanians at risk to do so ,” he said.
The spokesman said the government had been supporting the arts industry through the pandemic, with the Cultural and Creative Industries Stimulus Support Package committing new funding of $1.5m and new operational measures of more than $2m to address the challenges of C OVID.