SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Dozens of workers from the live events industry gathered and marched late Tuesday night to draw attention to the fact they are largely still not working six months into the pandemic.
“Salt Lake this month would normally have about 8,000 people working events,” said Peter O’Doherty, president of the Utah Live Events Industry Association. “There’s probably somewhere in the region of 200 – 300 working them at the moment. The rest are out of work.”
O’Doherty said industry groups in September are lighting up buildings in red to remind the public how dire the situation is in the live entertainment events industry.
“The live events industry in some areas won’t come back until there is a vaccine, and even then it’s going to be slow for people to accept the new way and in the meantime we’re having to find other ways of working,” O’Doherty said. “Major concerts, major tours, world tours, world sporting events, gatherings of 100,000 people are probably not going to happen in the next six – nine months and we need to be aware of that.”
O’Doherty said his group, which was formed after the COVID-19 pandemic, aims to share resources and provide mutual support while offering a unified voice on industry issues.
“We’ve had a campaign looking for our four main asks, which are rent, staff, working capital and promotion grants to be built in to allow us work,” O’Doherty said.
Peter Marley, representative of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees said “the bottom was just jerked out” for workers across the country.