Red Alert Day of Action - #WeMakeEvents
On Tuesday 11th August, the live events industry across the UK will come together in solidarity to host a series of creative action to help save the live events and entertainment sector, which is on the verge of collapsing without financial support from the government. Hundreds of venues are expected to turn their lights red, along with other creative activities being staged in over 20 cities across the UK to symbolise the industry going into red alert, and a final call to action titled ‘Throw us a line’.
To coincide with this action, the United Kingdom Crowd Management Association (UKCMA) has today expressed serious concerns regarding the downturn in work for its membership and associated event professionals, caused by obliteration of events, sports, music and across the entertainment industry.
The whole industry was affected by Covid with job losses and often zero earnings for the last four months for a range of personnel: concession staff, drivers, riggers, cleaners, local commercial outlets associated with venues, the venues and their staff. The offshoot to this is that tens of thousands of security and stewarding staff, as well as the businesses they work for and their support staff, are also impacted.
The UKCMA is aware of some companies now in consultation to reduce staffing and some who have already carried out redundancies. The recent UKCMA member survey shows over half the association’s membership have lost half or more its workforce, with a percentage which may never return to the industry.
This situation already means the loss of many skilled personnel to the crowd and event safety industry. These personnel will inevitably seek employment elsewhere, indeed as the first and worst affected, many already have.
In an industry where experienced safety personnel were already significantly lacking during the busy event months; their loss will be felt most keenly as the UK’s entertainment industry and festival world try to return to entertain the public.
The years of lost experience will not be readily replaceable when the rest of the industry is ready to relaunch and enhanced safety measures for Covid and under the proposed ‘Martyn's Law’ will be hampered if these skills have been lost.
The Crowd Safety, Security and Stewarding industry seeks no special government treatment beyond that called for by the wider message, it just wishes to highlight the impending danger and to ensure it is not overlooked.
