NI live events industry calls for more Covid-19 support

Musicians across Northern Ireland said today (Wednesday) they feel abandoned by the Executive.

The music and live event sector in Northern Ireland has been one of the worst hit industries since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It was also was one of the last sectors to receive funding from Stormont, which was then delegated to the Arts Council to distribute.

Roe Donald, a singer songwriter from Londonderry, has been performing since she was 15 years old.

The Derry born artist said she did receive money through the self-employed scheme and money from the Arts Council.

However, she said it was only designed to cover a couple of months which she said is not enough.

She said: “It’s really hard to plan any tours or shows coming forward because we’ve no idea when we’ll be allowed to work again and it kind of feels like music and the music industry and even the creative industry in general have been left behind a little bit or are being thought of as a second thought which doesn’t work for an industry that generates so much money.”

“It’s a massive contributor to our economy as well it’s not just a side Hussle, it’s not just a hobby for most people.

“This is our job; this is what we do, and we need to see more action in terms of government help.

“It’s a bit terrifying that everything has just kind of been pushed to the side.

“My major source of income has been the shows, so they’ve just fallen through.

“There’s a complete sense of nobody knows what’s going on at the minute, which is scary because it’s our livelihoods, it’s what we’ve invested into.

“It also doesn’t help whenever politicians say that we should be training up to be in a different industry.

“If we know, even if starts off small, even we know the general plan towards what’s going to happen for the music industry, when shows are going to start happening again and also more financial support.

For me I’ve been using the time to be creative, to write, because otherwise if I was touring, I wouldn’t normally get the chance to just sit down and that be my focus.

“So that’s been a positive that’s come out of this.”

Sean Pagel is the director of PSI, a lighting, rigging and audio company and is also the Regional Lead for We Make Events NI.

The former rigger for Liam Gallagher said that the money the events industry in NI makes is more than half of what fishing and agriculture generate combined.

He said: “What we have to keep driving home is that 2018/ 2019 there was a GVA to the Northern Ireland Economy, from the events sector, of £487 million pounds.

“Fisheries and Agriculture combined was £780.

“The events industry has a monetary return into the economy of over half agriculture and fishing combined, but nobody knows who we are, nobody knows what we do because we’ve always just carried on with it and done our own thing.

“I think that the figures that have come down to a Government level to then be passed on must have been approved by somebody, but they’ve been approved by someone, it would seem, who doesn’t actually know how many businesses there are and how many people there are that need to be supported.

“I liaise with the other devolved nations in Scotland and Wales, and both of those have event advisory groups to put together a realistic road map for how the events industry will come back.

“This is something I’ve been asking for, for a long time.”

He said the body was created as a result of lockdown and ever since the organisation has been lobbying for further financial support from the Executive and the UK Government.

Mr Pagel said the group also wants to raise awareness of the industry.

He added: “It’s very difficult to determine how sustainable your business is whenever we don’t know what we’re aiming towards and how long we have to keep it going.

“I think that the problem is that we’re not at the forefront of the Executives mind because there are other more pressing issues, if you like, in a lot of people’s eyes.

“For example, are the schools going to come back? Are vaccines going to be rolled out on time?”

A spokesperson for the Department for Communities said: “We will continue to work with the sector on both the immediate and longer-term issues that are presented.

“The £33m Culture, Languages, Arts and Heritage Programme includes a number of schemes providing awards to offset deficits incurred by organisations as a result of the pandemic, to stabilise and allow them to continue to exist, even with reduced or no activity up to the end of March 2021.

“It also includes support for self-employed and freelance individuals.”