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By Jamie Apps s the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic continues to worsen around the country, and particularly here in Sydney, drastic measures have been implemented to keep the community safe.
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his government are prohibiting all “non-essential public gatherings of greater than 100 indoors and 500 outdoors.” It’s a decision which will have severe impacts across the arts and entertainment industries. On Tuesday the Federal Minister for the Arts, Paul Fletcher, met with entertainment representatives via teleconference and released the following statement. “It is clear that COVID-19 presents significant issues for our arts organisations – and like all Australians, they are showing great community spirit in calmly and efficiently dealing with the circumstances they are facing in the near-term so we can come through this challenging period”
Minister Fletcher also reiterated that businesses in the entertainment and creative fields are entitled to the cash flow assistance which were announced in last week’s $17.6 billion stimulus package. Under this program small to medium businesses can receive support to help them to continue to pay employees, up to a maximum of $25,000. According to a press release from the website I Lost My Gig Australia, run by various entertainment industry bodies, the total lost income from cancelled events as of March 17 sat at $100 million, with 65,000 job opportunities lost and over 380,000 individuals impacted. This week has seen many major cancellations. In particular the Sydney Royal Easter Show will not occur for first time since the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1919. On Wednesday afternoon the Sydney Film Festival announced that for the first time ever they would be cancelling the event. Vivid Sydney, ANZAC Day Commemorations statewide, the Sydney Writer’s Festival have all cancelled as well.
“This is an unprecedented, deeply upsetting and challenging time for everyone, but the health and safety of authors, audiences, staff, publishers, volunteers and our community must come first. We urge our audience and community to support authors and local booksellers in what is sure to be a challenging year,” said the Sydney Writer’s Festival. In terms of venues the Sydney Opera House and the City Recital Hall will shut their doors until further notice, while the Enmore Theatre has cancelled or postponed all events through the end of the month. For some other events/venues, such as Sydney Biennale, the Stanley Street Gallery, Galerie Pompom, the Art Gallery On Darling, and Pro Wrestling Australia (PWA) it is critical that the doors remain open. Even if this requires more stringent cleaning, crowd control measures, or alternative methods of performance. Tomorrow night rather than run their scheduled live event in-front of a live audience PWA will instead be running a live streamed event behind closed doors.
“These new restrictions will have a HUGE impact as an independent pro wrestler,” explained PWA wrestler Steph De Lander. However, De Lander also sees this time as an opportunity to hone her craft, “I’m kind of viewing this the same way I did when I was out with an injury... if this is a time where wrestling is taken away for a little bit, I should try and use it to get creative and find ways to still be working on my brand in a non-physical sense.” For comedian Sam Wade the community spirit of the arts scene will help pull him. “I have a bunch of really good people around me, and most of them are trying to get through this together. We have to look out for each other, now more than ever!” The public can show their support for the creative and live music industries in a number of ways. They can donate to Support Act at supportact.com.au - a charity delivering crisis relief to musicindustry workers. They can stream, share and buy music by Australian artists, buy their merchandise , or just reach out to people in the industry to make sure they are okay.
If you or someone you know needs support, there is help available: Support Act Helpline: 1800 959 500 Lifeline Hotline: 13 11 14 or text their helpline on 0477 13 11 14