Financial Mail reports that one year without live music and little support from the government has left numerous SA musicians and artists financially on their knees.
Festivals and events have dried up because of lockdown regulations. Besides the artists, it’s left events companies in serious trouble after a year without sales. For the music and events industry, survival is taking many post-pandemic forms. Those who could have taken their events online, but it’s practically impossible to make the same number of sales from an online concert that an artist would have made from playing an arena to 50,000 people. Gareth Wilson, a musician who has worked in the events industry for more than a decade, says the pandemic has caused organisers to start new businesses, or to leave entertainment altogether. Now, it’s "everything from corporate-style shows to birthday parties. There are no gigs too small anymore," Wilson commented. The challenge with small events is that the ticket revenue barely covers costs, most of which are made up by manpower. Event organisers feel they’ve been dealt a bad hand. "People can go to pubs and prayer gatherings. Shopping centres can have 10,000 customers a day, but a trade event can only have 6,000 people, even though we are professionals in running safe events," Carol Weaving of Reed Exhibitions pointed out. With very low vaccination rates in SA, it’s difficult to be optimistic. Attracting international talent will be a battle and another factor is currency weakness. Weaving said she expected all events everywhere to have a virtual aspect from now on.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Alistair Anderson at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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