Following Splendour In The Grass picking up two gongs at Wednesday's Australian Event Awards for its 2019 incarnation (Best Tourism Event and Event Producer Of The Year), co-founder and co-CEO Jessica Ducrou has called on the Government for more support for the live music industry, which is still reeling from restrictions enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While I am absolutely thrilled to have received this recognition for the Splendour In The Grass team and also personally, it comes at a time when the live music industry is unable to operate and is in dire straits," Ducrou said.
“While State Governments have relaxed restrictions to allow 40,000 people to gather at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium for football finals and 11,000 at Royal Randwick for the races in the interest of economic recovery, there has been no such assistance for our Australian music festivals, which employed 9,176 Full-Time Equivalent workers and injected over $2.7Billion into the Australian economy in 2019."
"An 86% loss (economic and jobs) is projected for 2020," Ducrou added, quoting preliminary findings from Live Entertainment Industry Forum and EY’s study on the Economic cost of COVID-19 on Australia’s Live Entertainment Industry.
Ducrou also called for immediate assistance to the live events industry, especially after a support package was announced by the Federal Government back in June.
“Not $1 of the federal funding for arts and entertainment businesses has reached the industry as yet and it won't until January 2021," Ducrou said. "The live music and events industry needs assistance now!"
Ducrou outlined what the Government needs to do to assist the live industry and called for equal treatment alongside other industries that have been allowed to gather in large numbers again.
"We need the government to support the industry with a Business Interruption Fund, Event Cancellation Fund or Insurance, led by the industry and underwritten by Government, as has been provided to the film industry," Ducrou outlined.
“We need the continuation of JobKeeper support for employees in our industry until live entertainment returns to normal operation and without the constraints of major restrictions. We need a moratorium on GST on live event tickets, following the precedent set in the UK. We need a significant expansion of the RISE grant funding program, with a particular focus on assisting commercial, non-subsidised live entertainment operators to deliver live events in COVID-safe formats.
“We need a level playing field. Allowances and relaxations afforded to the racing and sporting industries should also apply to the live entertainment industry.”
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