AusLeisure

Live Performance Australia is calling on all states and territories to outline the timeframe to allow all live entertainment venues to operate at 100% capacity and to guarantee borders would remain open now the vaccination program was underway.

Live Performance Australia (LPA), Chief Executive Evelyn Richardson said the live entertainment industry had proved resilient in the face of significant disruption caused by COVID-19 and notes “the industry has worked with all governments to get our people back to work, our shows back on stage and touring.

“We set a goal of getting our theatres open at 100% capacity by March this year. We’ve nearly reached 75% audience capacity indoors across the country with some shows at more than 85% and Queensland at 100%, the first state to lift restrictions.

“We’re now calling on all states and territories to follow the lead of Queensland and open all indoor theatre venues to 100% capacity. We also need to review the one person per two square metre rule. We know that small live performance venues are struggling to program events given the current restrictions and events of scale such as concerts and music festivals are a long way off returning to normal business operations.

Richardson highlighted that “the challenges of eight different frameworks with anomalies in indoor and outdoor settings plus lack of consistency across industry sectors is severely impeding business recovery. We are concerned that sport and cultural events are being treated differently, despite the venue settings being broadly the same.

“We are also a huge touring industry and rely on borders being open and venue capacities being aligned nationally. For a producer putting a show into market, the current patchwork of restrictions severely hinders their ability to design a business model that works in terms of ticket sales and touring costs.

“At 75% capacity most of our shows are still not breaking even. We’ve also had the constant disruption of snap lockdowns and changing border and density restrictions. This has impacted both consumer and industry confidence.

“20th March marks one year since the first domestic border closed in Australia. Monday marked the first day in 12 months that all domestic borders were open. We need to keep them open.

“For our live music promoters we also need certainty we can kick start our summer touring season in October with full capacity in all our venues, indoor and outdoor, large and small.  

“We ask that the National Cabinet agree to keep the borders open, commit to increasing capacity to 100% at all live entertainment venues and work with us to implement a framework for bringing in international artists and crew.

“This will get all of our people back to work and enable our companies to get back to business.”

Image: Brisbane live venues. Queensland venues can now operate at 100%, being the first state to lift restrictions. Image courtesy of queensland.com/

Related Articles

19th March 2021 - Event industry suppliers circle Victorian Parliament in protest at lack of state government support

18th March 2021 - VMA announces hybrid 2021 Asia Pacific Venue Industry Congress program

15th March 2021 - Tasmanian Government called upon to re-assess COVID-19 restrictions for theatre sector

12th March 2021 - No relief for events and venues in Federal Government’s post JobKeeper package

8th March 2021 - Australian Festival Industry Conference to return as a live event

8th March 2021 - Australian Regional Events Alliance looks to support events industry

22nd February 2021 - Live Performance Australia calls for targeted JobSaver action to prevent further collapse of the arts and entertainment industry

14th February 2021 - ASM Global’s Harvey Lister looks to ‘full revival’ of live events in 2022

9th December 2020 - LPA calls for Business Interruption Fund to protect entertainment sector against future COVID-related shutdowns

18th November 2020 - Live Performance Australia releases updated Ticketing Code of Practice

10th August 2020 - Live Performance Australia releases comprehensive COVIDSafe guidelines

7th August 2020 - Live Performance Australia commends Western Australian Government for shared risk funding

25th June 2020 - Arts and entertainment funding package welcomed by Live performance industry

4th June 2020 - Live Performance Australia’s $345 million plan to restart and rebuild the entertainment industry

5th May 2020 - Live Performance Australia slams NSW Government’s lack of support for cultural sector in crisis during Coronavirus crisis

4th April 2020 - LPA believes funding still not enough to prevent decimation of live performance industry

23rd March 2020 - LPA seeks targeted financial stimulus for live performance industry

18th March 2020 - Perth Festival supports Live Performance Australia’s call for immediate economic stimulus

17th March 2020 - LPA calls for $850 million live performance support and stimulus package

13th March 2020 - Live Performance Australia calls for urgent government action to protect $2.5 billion industry

11th March 2020 - Live Performance Australia release Coronavirus statement

17th February 2020 - Live Performance Australia backs consumers getting better information on ticket resales

16th December 2019 - Live Performance Australia says industry is waiting for Viagogo to communicate

4th December 2019 - Live Performance Australia seeks answers from Google as Viagogo advertising returns

3rd December 2019 - LPA reports live performance industry drives cultural economy but growth rate slowing

17th October 2019 - Live Performance Australia slams NSW Government’s ‘broken promises’ on music festival consultation

25th September 2019 - Live Performance Australia advises that collaboration is key to safer music festivals

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.