Thousands of event professionals across the world lit venues in red as they joined in with the #WeMakeEvents Global Action Day on 30 September, including 28 countries and 17 regions up and down the UK.
The campaign is an industry-run collective of hundreds of UK and international businesses, including manufacturers, production providers, and freelance specialists, and is focused on the direct impact of the closure of live performance and entertainment venues, affecting the highly-skilled technical workforce, suppliers and the extended supply chain involved in delivering live performances.
The key aspects to the campaign include securing extensive government support to enable efforts to trial viable ‘back to work’ scenarios along with financial support until they can safely return. The second focus is on being a champion for people in the events sector, offering support at a time when mental health is being severely tested and to raise funds to provide support for them, their families and industry charities. The campaign continues on with the Survival tour with other initiatives planned in November.
Despite it being a grey day, more than 300 event professionals, including Madness guitarist Chris Forman, joined the #WeMakeEvents global activation in Brighton.
Key figures in Brighton’s live event scene showed their support, including Billy Mauseth from Brighton Music Conference, Paul Kemp from Brighton Pride, Julian Caddy from The Fringe and Rory Bett from The Great Escape along with Madness guitarist Chris Foreman came together to fight for the industry.
Brighton went one step beyond to show its support for the events industry by lighting its buildings in red. From Rockwater in Hove to live music venue Concorde2, the seafront was illuminated in red. The British Airways i360 Viewing Tower put on a special light show, produced by John Wallis at Reveries Events.
At 8pm, the peaceful protest saw phones light-up red accompanied by a three‐minute silence attracting supportive honks from passing cars.
The Brighton event was spearheaded by a core group of event professionals: Jacqui Partridge and Ian Silcock, Ian Baird founder of EPIC and John Wallis.
“It’s incredible how people have come together and pulled out all the stops,” Partridge said.
“Our mission is to educate the public on how serious this is for so many people and to Government. All we want to do is get back to work, but in that absence, we need help.”
The two‐hour production involved more than 250 volunteers and around 50 companies who donated time and kit from all over the country for the show, including music producer Wax Worx who donated his unreleased track ‘Get up, GO MAD’ for the Brighton video.
Find out more about #WeMakeEvents here.
A desire to travel led Holly Patrick to the business meetings and events world and she’s never looked back. Holly takes a particular interest in event sustainability and creating a diverse and inclusive industry. When she’s not working, she can be found rolling skating along Brighton seafront listening to an eclectic playlist, featuring the likes of Patti Smith, Sean Paul, and Arooj Aftab.
