The UK’s largest regional theatre and hundreds of other venues around the nation have held another day of action to highlight the threat the live entertainment industry is under from continued Covid restrictions.
Theatre Royal Plymouth was among venues bathed in red light on the evening of September 30 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 organiser Emily Evis, 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 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 Government-backed 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 a job support scheme specifically tailored to the live events industry.
A spokesperson for Theatre Royal Plymouth said: “Our industry is important and contributes billions of pounds each year to the UK economy. We want our future to continue to create millions of memories with the stories to match - it’s what we do best.
“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.
“Red Alert – Stand as ONE, is a campaign to raise public and media awareness in support of the live events sector which employs over circa 1,000,000 highly skilled people in the UK, many of whom have had no work since March 2020 with little likelihood of restarting until Spring 2021.
“The campaign is led by a large and growing industry collective of trade bodies, businesses and freelancers affected by the shutdown all working together. It spans online and social messaging, video, case studies and legal outdoor events to gain media attention.
“The aim is to have financial support extended for individuals and companies in this sector until they can return to work. We call on you to stand as one, united in our common cause to save our industry.”
