Redundancies in the UK live events industry have already started with 10% of companies planning to issue notices by the end of July, an additional 15% in August and 70% planning to make redundancies by the end of 2020. A fifth of companies expect to lose 70% of their staff.

According to research conducted which highlights the dire straits of the industry and its supply chain indicates so. As a result, the We Make Events campaign launched by trade body PLASA is now issuing a “Red Alert” and planning to bring organisations, businesses and live events staff together on 11 August to call for government support.

PLASA said, the UK is regarded as a global leader in delivering large, complex events and without financial support from the government, the UK’s art and culture sector is at risk of closing for good and potentially losing a contribution of over £100 billion to UK GDP to European and US production companies, some of whom are receiving government support. It estimates that over a million members of staff, freelancers and businesses will experience unaffordable loan repayments, loss of furlough payments, and fears that bailout funding will go directly to venues instead of staff.

Peter Heath, MD of PLASA, said, “The live events industry supply chain that contributes to every single event in the UK is set to completely collapse, social distancing prohibits mass events, and even if this stopped now, long- term planning for events won’t enable a return until around March 2021. Now the whole industry is coming together to initiate a Red Alert. We have been campaigning for financial support from the government using #WeMakeEvents because the sector is on its last legs.”

James Gordon, CEO of Audiotonix, the UK’s largest pro-audio manufacturer and a key supplier to the events industry, added: “As the first industry to stop working back in early March, we will also be the last to get our businesses working again, with ongoing social distancing making it impossible to open up live event venues to allow capacities that are commercially viable for all. Without an ongoing sector-specific furlough scheme which other European countries have introduced, and other financial measures that will help our freelance workers who make up 72% of this sector’s workforce, we cannot secure the long term future of the UK’s leading, internationally respected and commercially contributing events industry.”