Red Alert for events industry
Arts centres across country join Red Alert to highlight crisis
DONNINGTON Castle and The Watermill theatre were lit up on Tuesday evening as part of the Red Alert campaign in solidarity with arts venues and the live events scene. The theatre joined more than 300 venues around the UK turning their lights red to highlight the crisis facing the industry.
And Donnington Castle shone red from 9pm to 11pm as West Berkshire-based Moonraker Disco demonstrated its solidarity with thousands of other events companies and suppliers across the UK.
THE Watermill theatre was lit up on Tuesday evening as part of the Red Alert campaign in solidarity with fellow arts venues and industry professionals nationally.
The theatre joined more than 300 venues around the UK turning their lights red to highlight the crisis facing the live events scene.
And from 9pm to 11pm, Donnington Castle glowed red as West Berkshire-based Moonraker Disco demonstrated its solidarity with thousands of other events companies and suppliers across the UK, in lighting the monument up, as part of #WeMakeEvents associated under the Professional Light and Sound Association.
The Red Alert campaign aims to raise awareness about the threat of job losses within the arts sector and is a national call to the Government to prevent venues from closing their doors for good.
The Watermill’s artistic director Paul Hart said: “During this uncertain time, I’ve been moved by theatres up and down the country working their socks off to create inspired work and community projects in impossible circumstances.
“It is crucial to support the individuals who make this industry what it is and to prevent the huge potential loss of jobs.”
The Watermill theatre was one of the first venues to open its doors and welcome back audiences for a limited summer season of live performances in its gardens, with the current production of The Hound of the Baskervilles.
However, it is still uncertain when the theatre’s auditorium, like all indoor performance venues across the UK, will reopen.
Virtually all venues have been closed since March and, although some outdoor shows have been produced since restrictions eased, including The Watermill’s Sherlock
Holmes spoof in the theatre’s grounds, indoor performances with audiences are not yet permitted.
The industry reports that more than a million professionals are at risk of losing their jobs without additional financial support from the Government.
The furlough scheme and support for self-employed people are due to end in the coming months, although many freelancers have not been eligible.
Family-run events and entertainments business Moonraker Disco works with venues, hotels and clients, supplying DJs alongside visual, sound, lighting and stages for parties, corporate events and weddings.
Ben Pike from Moonraker said: “From mid-March until now, six months and ongoing of zero work, zero turnover and income have been removed from our books.
“It has been a really difficult and unprecedented time, impacting sadly not just the couples and venues we are booked with, but our small in-house team and our DJs in particular, not knowing when they will play again (in public that is).
“We have been compassionately working in partnership with our clients and couples to schedule postponed events and weddings in particular, mostly now until next year, while we all patiently wait for the green light.
“We are ‘surviving’ for now, but how can any business plan to continue in this limbo?
“The industry has been waiting for answers, we now need official guidance, a timeline to recovery, and we need continued Government
support to reach the other side.
“Covid-19 has devastated and disrupted our small family-run business like so many others, with uncertainty and the unsettlingly unknown of when we will be working again.
“All we are asking for is some idea of a roadmap back to a new ‘normal’, and financial support so businesses like ours and many others all over, can survive, plan and hope again for the future.
Mr Pike said that when people looked out at Donnington Castle, lit up in red by Moonraker Disco, they would now understand the reason behind the glow.
“This powerful and significant show of unison across the UK events sector shows our Government they cannot ignore our industry and voices any longer.”