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“the economic fallout from [the event industry’s] collapse can potentially dwarf that of the 2008 recession and mortgage market collapse.  We are an industry almost 2.5 times the size of GM [General Motors] with total yearly revenues of in excess of $337 Billion in 2016.” —change.org

At least two petitions are circulating in the USA and UK requesting event-industry support from the federal government. Cumulatively, the two have nearly 400,000 signatures as of this writing. The UK Parliament and Government will be responding to the UK petition in the next 3-5 days; stay tuned here for updates.

From the US petition (see the petition for further details):

“The aid package should include, but not be limited to:

• Emergency Medicaid Health insurance – to cover our uninsured business owners,  contractors and laid off employees
• An additional $200 Billion in low interest federally backed business liquidity loans – the initial $50 Bill has already been surpassed in current sustained losses just to our industry.
• $100 Billion in Employee Retention Grants
• The ability to submit canceled contracts as loss of income on our 2020 taxes.
• The Families First Coronavirus Response Act to include 1099 self-employed individuals 
• The ability to apply for unemployment insurance to cover lost income.
• The ability to get disability sick pay for missed work. “

—Covid-19 Federal Aid Package for Events Industry | Change.org

Petition: Government to offer economic assistance to the events industry during COVID-19 | UK Government and Parliament Petitions

The last 24 hours has seen encouraging mobilisation from some governments in protecting workers and businesses hardest hit by coronavirus economic fallout. 

We’d like to highlight New Zealand and The Netherlands, whose recently announced economic relief packages win best-in-show in terms of prompt response, benefit per capita, and inclusion of support not only for small businesses but for casual and freelance workers, who make up a considerable chunk of the nightlife industry. 

Read about The Netherlands relief package, which offers 90% salary to workers laid off, including casual contractees and sole traders. 

Read about New Zealand’s relief package, amounting to approximately 4% of its GDP and including wage subsidies for full time, part time and self-employed workers whose income has disappeared.

King County Creative Economy Strategist Kate Becker, Music Policy Forum co-founder Michael Bracy and Dr. Gigi Louisa Johnson from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will be in conversation about how King County (which includes Seattle, WA) is responding to the virus, what they are telling their music venues, businesses, artists and venues, and generally share perspectives on lessons learned throughout this process. Feel free to circulate this invitation across your organizations and networks.

Wed, March 18, 2020, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PDT
Free RSVP via this Eventbrite link. This event will also be recorded and made available afterwards.

There is a tidal wave of information surging through the internet at the moment that can be overwhelming when trying to identify what’s relevant to you. 

The following sites are providing accurate, nightlife-specific information amidst the unfolding crisis, with global scope: 

• Resident Advisor running updates and features: electronic music focus
• Music x Corona newsletter : general music industry focus, run by Bas Grasmayer (Berlin, DE based)
• Global Cities After Dark running updates: music and policy focus (Sydney, AU based)
• Nighttime.org AKA us! running updates and features: global nightlife focus

“On 11 March 2020, Denmark notified the Commission of its intention to set up a DKK 91 million (€12 million) aid scheme to compensate organisers of events with more than 1,000 participants or targeted at designated risk groups, such as the elderly or vulnerable people, irrespective of the number of participants, which had to be cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Under the scheme, operators would be entitled to be compensated for the losses suffered as a consequence of the cancellations or postponements of the events, for which, for example, tickets were already sold.”
—European Commission, 12 Mar 2020

“[Event organizers] were left with an unenviable decision to mitigate in real time. Do you risk asymptomatic people spreading the virus? Do you send workers home, from performing artists to lighting technicians to security to bar staff, who might desperately rely on that last paycheck before work in events is vaporised? With insurance policies unclear on cancellation policy due to Covid-19, and no emergency fund from the government in place for nightlife industries, a string of bankruptcies are a very real possibility, too – although this was looked upon dimly by European counterparts who enacted compulsory closure much sooner.”

— The last dance: clubbing in the coronavirus crisis | The Guardian | 17 March 2020

As the saying goes, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Lost work in the freelance and event world can be more difficult to quantify than “9-to-5” work and income—and data is essential in this moment. The nascent ILostMyGig movement aims to address this, putting numbers to the work and income lost to coronavirus event cancellations— enabling policymakers to better respond to the needs of freelance, event, arts, and nightlife communities.

As of March 17, I Lost My Gig Australia tallies 380,000 people impacted by 65,000 cancelled events, totalling $100M in lost income.

As of March 17, in addition to the original ILostMyGig page for Austin, TX, USA, there are ILostMyGig pages for Australia and the USA theatre community.

Similarly, other cities’ nighttime commissions are using their own platforms to gather data on clubs’ and workers’ lost revenue, like New York (MOME), Berlin (Clubcommission, in German, open through 18 Mar), and Vilnius (Vilnius Night Alliance, in Lithuanian).

Other scenes running an ILostMyGig database not listed here? Send it our way: hello@vibe-lab.org .