New Musical Express (09/28/20) Reilly, Nick

The global events sector will team up on Sept. 30 for a Global Day of Action after the ordeal of the coronavirus pandemic, with music venues and events professionals from more than 25 countries marking a new and broader phase of the #WeMakeEvents campaign. The event seeks to raise worldwide awareness of the catastrophic financial impact the crisis will have on the industry without government support. It involves white light being beamed skyward, with each beam reflecting potential job attrition, while other venues are illuminated in red with the hashtag #WeMakeEvents to highlight the red alert crisis. Projections also will be used to showcase empty venues, with images of what would have been staged inside them displayed on the side. Moreover, a set of other creative and art installations will be used to emphasize the number of event professionals who are out of work or could be facing imminent joblessness. This follows outrage from the U.K. music and nightlife industry on a "lack of support" from the government, after one Member of Parliament asserted that it "doesn't make sense" to keep backing the industry through the pandemic as the furlough ends. A recently introduced U.K. job support scheme to top up the pay packets of employed workers for next six months provoked worry that nighttime workers, many of them unemployed by forced closure of nightclubs and music venues, will be excluded. Bosses from the live music sector warned of the industry being largely unable to reopen, and threatened by "a crisis which is not of its own making."

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