Creative sector ready for entertainment reopening
While happy for the measures to reopen the entertainment industry, member of the Cultural and Creative Industry (CCI) alliance, Andrea Chung, said that more specific measures tailored to the many subsectors are needed.
“It is really very wide and varied and you could imagine the protocols for a book reading are very different from the protocols for a dancehall session,” she said. Chung argued that the hosting of different types of events and the possibility of contagion occurring at these functions would require “a broader more inclusive type of consultation”.
Measures for the entertainment sector will take effect on July 1. Small events, determined as 60 per cent of usable square footage, may resume with a maximum of 100 patrons, including organisers and support personnel. Should there be a surge in COVID-19 cases following the opening of the sector, Chung said that Jamaicans should not only blame events.
“The opening of events is not happening in a vacuum. There are a number of other things, in terms of incoming travel, in terms of increases in different areas. Churches and offices have been hosting people since this thing started. The business process outsourcing sector has been going, and the hotels have been staffed,” she said.
“In a way, the cultural and creative industries have been holding strain, so that other sectors could be balanced and right now we don’t want – oh, events have been opened and there is a spike. We need people to understand how all of these things interconnect and interrelate,” Chung added.
Co-convenor of the CCI, Latoya West Blackwood, said the alliance will be doing its part to ensure compliance among its members who are determined to facilitate the success of the current dispensation.
“I think all of us in the alliance are concerned about public health. We are parents. We are business people. We want to balance lives and livelihoods as well. We are not just focused on making money and being selfish,” she emphasised. The CCI, an alliance of cultural and creative industry stakeholders, includes the Book Industry Association of Jamaica, Kingston Creative Limited, Dancers of Jamaica, the Jamaica Photography Society and the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association. The CCI also comprises literary festivals, cultural and museum tours, film and music performances and parties.