COVID-19: 10+ campaigns showing the mobilisation of the live music sector

Culture is my job – PETZI (CH)

Culture is my job is a platform launched by several Swiss music and cultural associations. They invite Swiss cultural workers to register to the platform in order to show the huge workforce which is behind every cultural event in Switzerland. Culture is my job also makes recommendations to the Swiss federal and local governments as to what they could do to support the sector. The campaign started in early 2020.

Website: https://cultureismyjob.ch/en/

El Ultimo Concierto – ACCES (ES)

In November 2020, ACCES launched the campaign “El ultimo concierto?”. The campaign consists of a manifest which states the direct need of support of the sector. The campaign also gained a lot of visibility by inviting live music venues to draw a huge question mark on their front doors, a symbol of the incertainty of when concerts would normally resume again. Live music venues could organise live streamings of concerts which artists were silent. As silent as the live music would be without any support.

Website: https://www.elultimoconcierto.com/

L’Ultimo Concerto & Nessun Concerto – KeepOn Live (IT)

KeepOn Live collaborated with ACCES on a similar campaign as L’ultimo concierto, for the Italian venues. In February 2022, they continued the Last Concert campaign with “No concert” campaign, which aims to call again for governmental support for live venues, after 2 years of no regular functioning for live music venues.

Website: https://www.ultimoconcerto.it/

Save Our Venues – Music Venue Trust (UK)

Save our Venues was launched in 2020. It draws together fundraising activity aimed at preventing the permanent closure of over 500 vital venues due to COVID-19. This campaign aims to bring together artists who want to help, with the venues they love, and provide an easy way for music fans to financially support the resultant live streams. The campaign raised over £1,248,150.

Website: https://saveourvenues.co.uk/#/

Behold Din Billet – Dansk Live (DK)

Our Danish member Dansk Live launched in 2020 a campaign to ask audience who had tickets for a postponed or cancelled concert and who wanted to and could afford it, to not ask for the reimbursement of their ticket, in a gesture of solidarity with the venues.

More information: http://dansklive.dk/artikler/hj%C3%A6lp-din-festival-eller-dit-spillested-og-behold-din-billet/

Similar campaigns were run by our members in the Netherlands and in Estonia.

Aovivo Ou Morto – Circuito (PT)

The coronavirus crisis undoubtedly accelerated the need for a representative association which advocates for the great cultural, social and economic value of the independent live music scenes which need to be supported. That is why the Portuguese live music association was launched in 2020.
The first action of Circuito was to launch the campaign #AovivoOuMorto (roughly translated to #LiveOrDead) to raise awareness on the difficulties the sector is facing and protest for the government to take concerete actions to support and save Portuguese stages. Hundreds of people have queued in the streets in protest of the lack of recognition and measures by the Portuguese government to support live music scenes. The protest took part in 4 Portuguese cities.

Website: https://circuito.live/aovivooumorto/

#ApoyaTuSala – ACCES (ES)

The Spanish federal live music association ACCES have released in mid-2020 the campaign #ApoyaTuSala (#SupportYourLiveMusicScene). This campaign gives visibility to Spanish live music venues and the professionals evolving in this sector: crucial actors of the live music ecosystem. Artists will testify of the value of these scenes, spaces of connection between them and the audience and important actors of the cultural diversity of our societies.

As Spanish venues are 100% private, they do not receive public support and are greatly at risk with the COVID-19 crisis hitting the live music sector. They need to be supported and recognized as crucial cultural actors.

More information: https://salasdeconciertos.com/apoyatusala-2/

Les concerts assis, ça ne tient (toujours pas) debout – FEDELIMA (FR)

In June 2021, FEDELIMA launched a campaign to denounce the critical situation of the music sector, and the incapacity of the government to find accurate solutions. “Les concerts assis, ça ne tient pas debout”. This phrase means “Seated concerts don’t hold up”. A powerful French expression to draw the attention of the government and their bad management of the situation, hoping that standing up events will soon be re-starting without. In France, it was forbidden to stand up in live music venues, therefore a majority of them still have to be closed, or to reduce considerably their audience capacity. The campaign consist in sharing different visuals with memories of concerts written on them. It is currently shared by many venues part of the FEDELIMA network, for a bigger impact.

In January 2022, FEDELIMA started again their campaign : Les concerts assis, ça ne tient toujours pas debout (Seated concerts still don’t hold up), as a reaction to the return of this restriction by the French government. This re-start of the campaign was notably completed by an online petition against the new rules.

More information: https://www.fedelima.org/article446.html

Still Standing for Culture – Court-Circuit (BE / Wallonia & Brussels)

In May 2021, the Belgian live performance sector decided on a day of civil disobedience to protest against the unfair closure of these cultural places. These disobedience reopenings respected basic safety measures, and aimed to prove that cultural events could happen in a safe way. Many members of Court-Circuit took part in the action.

More information: https://www.court-circuit.be/actualite/revue-de-presse-actions-still-standing/

#GoLocal – Music Venue Trust (UK)

The UK live music association has announced in January 2022 a new campaign to encourage music fans to enjoy live music in safe environments by supporting their local Grassroots Music Venues. Given the current data and the guidance from the UK government, which continues to allow the staging of live music events, the #golocal campaign puts the emphasis on enjoying live music in a safe environment by urging music fans to visit local Grassroots Music Venues, avoiding mass transport and large crowds of people. From the very beginning of this pandemic MVT has led the way in helping the grassroots music community provide safe environments to stage live music events and continues to prioritize the health and wellbeing of audiences, venue staff, artists, and support crew. #GoLocal is the latest in a series of campaigns that MVT have implemented to help reopen every venue safely.

More information: https://musicvenuetrust.com/2022/01/music-venue-trust-launches-golocal-campaign/

#SafeVilnius – Vilnius Night Alliance/NAKTA (LT)

Vilnius Night Alliance (VNA) provided the Vilnius City Municipality with a list of sensible and practical safety rules and asked for more enforcement to crack down on the places that are currently operating dangerously. After a meeting of all stakeholders, the final list of rules was agreed and the City prepared a co-operation agreement for all nightlife venues and bars to sign voluntarily. VNA also designed a door sticker and made a map for all the venues that join the scheme. This campaign was created hand in hand between the sector and the local government in October 2020.

Website: www.naktis.org

More information on how the campaign was implemented: https://vna.lt/new-nightlife-safety-scheme-keeping-bars-and-nightclubs-open-in-vilnius-lithuania/