Ireland’s entertainment industry is calling for help as hundreds of theatres, venues, clubs, and festivals remain closed due to Covid-19.

The message came from the Event Production Industry Covid-19 Working Group (EPIC) in the form of an open letter, with more than 600 signatories from across the sector.

The letter compared the collapse of the entertainment sector to the fall of the construction industry in the 2008 recession.

“Across literally hundreds of theatres, venues, clubs, festivals, and small/large-scale events, the domestic live events and entertainment industry employs in excess of 35,000 full and part-time workers,” the letter stated.

“The vast majority of these highly-skilled people haven’t had any employment since March 12, 2020. Never in the long history of staging live performances and events on this island has there been such a sudden and total cessation of all work and activity.” 

The letter is accompanied by a video, ‘This Is Who We Are’, voiced by Stephen James Smith.

“We were the first industry to shut, and we will most likely be the last one to fully reopen. The non-funded events sector accounts for 90% of the 5m tickets sold in Ireland each year, and directly contributes over €3.5bn to the national economy,” it said.

It is estimated that for every euro spent on a ticket, an additional €6 is spent in the wider tourist economy, it added.

“We are unique in that we are the only sector completely closed under government mandate; as a result, through absolutely no fault of their own, live entertainment workers currently have little or no employment opportunities.” 

The letter stated that at least a decade of recovery will be needed unless action is taken, including the reinstatement of the employment wage subsidy scheme and PUP payment at €350 per week until the sector is allowed to return to work; grant funding proportionate to what has been allocated to the Arts Council in 2020; and consideration given to the commercial live events sector in the new task force for the recovery of the arts and culture sector.

Meanwhile, Denis Desmond, managing director of concert promoters MCD, told RTÉ radio that the biggest cost of Covid-19 to the live entertainment industry is the number of people who are out of work.

“That is 35,000 people who make their income from this and generate €3.4bn for the economy. More needs to be done,” he said. “More importantly, we need to open up the sector. There needs to be a road map of how we can open up this business in months, not weeks, but over the next four, five, six months.”