Michelle Johnson’s career in Las Vegas is a paragon of what the entertainment and events industry here is all about. She’s an exceptional and accomplished vocalist often referred to as the city’s “first lady of jazz,” but she also produces varied entertainment events and runs a backline and production company with her husband.

Like so many other local professionals, Johnson does a lot of different things in order to make the Vegas magic happen. That’s why she was talking to media at the Smith Center on Tuesday night, a perfect representation of what the Red Alert Restart awareness event was all about.

Las Vegas organizers and venues participated in the national event on the evening of Sept. 1 assembled by brand-new industry organization We Make Events North America. Venues like the Fremont Street Experience, the Space, the Thomas & Mack Center, Allegiant Stadium and the Las Vegas Ballpark were lit in red to show support for the displaced workers in the live events industry, and downtown’s Plaza Hotel & Casino hosted a performance from some of those entertainers and a fireworks display at its Core Arena.

But Johnson spent her evening at the Smith Center, where a symbolic road case push circled the Symphony Park lawn to start the events, because the downtown performing arts center holds a special place in her heart.

“I’ve played here a lot, I love this building and I feel like when this was built, it shifted the way Las Vegas was perceived,” she said. “I always call this the Lincoln Center of Nevada. Before this it was the Strip and the production shows but now we have true arts here. For all of that to happen in what feels like a short period of time, and then one day it’s all done [because of the pandemic], that’s one thing.

“The other thing, and the reason I got emotional when I came out here, is seeing all these stagehands here. Even I don’t realize how many people have lost their gigs, and I’m in the business. Every show, every property, every hotel has AV [technicians]. And it feels a little like we’re invisible, the little magic behind the wall no one sees. They just see the performers.”

Red Alert Restart was a bit different from other local events and fundraisers benefitting those in the performing arts because the focus is on everyone in the industry — an estimated 12 million people across the country, according to organizers.

“From performers to technicians to designers to legal staff to the guy working the hot dog stand to the parking attendant, every person involved in making live events happen,” said Brad Nelms, a new Las Vegas resident and the national director for We Make Events. “We as an industry contribute about a trillion dollars a year in economic impact, plus the tertiary effects on other industries like travel, hospitality and restaurants.

“Without audiences we don’t exist and that’s our challenge right now. We can’t have an audience. There is a massive community behind these [events] that has made a living by being out of the picture, behind the scenes, and they now have a big problem, so that’s why we’re doing this.”

The North America group formed quickly after the campaign started in Europe with an Aug. 11 Light it Red event that saw the participation of 1,750 buildings. Tuesday’s event was organized by regional teams in 58 cities with approximately 2,000 buildings illuminated in red across the country, Nelms said, thanks to the efforts of more than 5,000 volunteers.

Some local industry workers have been attempting to persuade state government and the Nevada Gaming Control Board to create and release guidelines that would allow smaller Las Vegas shows and live entertainment events to get back onstage as soon as possible. But this national campaign’s goals are focused on getting more assistance for workers everywhere though two pieces of legislation that Congress could add to the next relief bill.

“The Restart Act is small-business legislation that’s not exclusive to our industry, but it would be helpful relative to other bills because it provides the loosest restrictions on the amounts of time and money it provides, and that gives us enough runway to get to March, which is the earliest time we believe we can be back,” Nelms said. “And on the people side, many people in this industry are freelance workers or own their own businesses and they’re not necessarily covered by the Payroll Protection Program. So we need pandemic unemployment assistance and federal pandemic unemployment compensation, the vehicles that were previously giving people that additional $600 per week to make an actual livable wage on unemployment, and allow independent contractors access to that money.”

We Make Events also held a livestream on Facebook during this week’s demonstrations and the group encourages supporters to visit wemakeevents.org to find ways to help.

It seems sadly ironic that the entertainment industry, always in the spotlight in Las Vegas and in other cities where showbiz is deeply entrenched in the community’s culture, appears to be misunderstood, overlooked or even ignored in the era of coronavirus.

“It feels like this is the epicenter of it,” Johnson said. “I’m from New York and my friends back home are saying the same thing, but the difference is [New York] is not the entertainment capital of the world. It’s Wall Street, and it’s all these other industries that are all affected, but here, this is the jewel in the crown of what we do. This is it.

“Especially when something tragic like this is going on, entertainment is always the thing that pulls people through. Think about the movies that came out of the ’40s after the war, or the music that came out of the ’60s. Anytime there’s turbulence, art is what has bridged us and gotten us through, and people have forgotten about us. I really believe we’re the healers and we’ll help people pull through, and I don’t think we’re the only ones, but we need to be taken more seriously as part of this city, for all that we give.”

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