Theatres on red alert as Covid hits their business
THE UK’s largest regional theatre and hundreds of others around the nation have held another day of action to highlight the threat the live entertainment industry is under from continued Covid19 restrictions.
Theatre Royal Plymouth was among venues bathed in red light as part of the global #WeMakeEvents and #LightItInRed campaign to raise awareness of the peril facing the events sector.
Under the slogan “red alert”, the campaign saw venues in 25 countries lit in red light to draw attention to the continued uncertainty about when concerts and shows can resume, and the precarious position actors, musicians and stage crew find themselves in.
In the UK 2,335 buildings registered to take part, under the slogan Stand As One, covering cities such as London, Plymouth, Exeter, Bristol, Cardiff, Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, Norwich, Sunderland, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, Belfast, Edinburgh, Inverness and Glasgow.
The campaign has been backed by Glastonbury festival co-organiser Emily Eavis, and other leading figures and companies in the entertainment business. Although venues have been allowed to reopen with social distancing measures in place, there are hardly any plays, concerts or gigs actually taking place, compared to before the lockdown began in March.
Musicians are already cancelling events for 2021 as uncertainty continues, and the entertainment workers union, Bectu, said the UK may already have seen 6,000 redundancies in the sector.
The #WeMakeEventscampaign wants the introduction of a Governmentbacked insurance scheme, which would ensure organisers can recover costs if concerts are cancelled due to a local lockdown.
Campaigners also want Government support for a Covid-19 testing scheme at venues, and a three-year extension on the reduced VAT rate on tickets – and they are calling for job support tailored to the live events industry.
A spokesperson for Theatre Royal Plymouth said: “This industry creates millions of memories with millions of stories, stories that are told and retold to friends and families around the world. Without significant and immediate support, the live events sector supply chain is at risk of collapse.”