Cash-starved events industry sees red

Port Elizabeth live events and entertainment industry venue owners, organisers, employees and artists joined the #LightSARed movement on Wednesday to highlight the industry’s plight after five months of being unable to earn an income.

The nationwide campaign resulted in more than 500 buildings and landmarks, including Cape Town’s Table Mountain, the State Theatre in Johannesburg and stadiums and buildings in other towns and cities being lit up red from 6pm to 8pm.

In Port Elizabeth, The Roof Garden Bar in Central, the Nelson Mandela Stadium, the Bridge Street Brewery building and Algoa FM House in Baakens Valley were some of the venues that joined the campaign.

The statement, lighting and set-up was the result of a collaboration between several Bay events companies, including Event Hire Network and Party Design.

Together, role players in the sector, including bartenders, photographers, DJs, promoters, sound engineers, stage managers and event venue owners and organisers, have lost millions of rand because planned events had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown.

Roof Garden Bar co-owner Tarquin De Vega said the venue had to cancel several pre-booked events such as weddings, birthday parties and corporate functions and refund customers.

The business’s staff — comprising six permanent employees and about 20 temporary workers and 10 promoters and ticket sales agents — have been surviving on reduced salaries since March, De Vega said.

The venue also hires out office space for creatives, some of whom cancelled their lease agreements due to loss of income.

“For the past couple of months we have managed to ensure that our staff receive some kind of income but it’s far less than what they usually get when we host events as that’s what they thrive on,” De Vega said.

He and his business partner Gus Noppe also co-own events company The Grand, which lost hundreds of thousands of rands in pre-booking artists for events that were later cancelled.

One of the company’s big annual events is the Air Force One Festival, which was scheduled for April 5-6.

Regular events such as Deep Brew Sundays also had to be cancelled.

“For our events we usually pay artists 100% upfront and book them flights and accommodation in advance, so we had already spent about R200,000 on bookings when we had to cancel the April show,” De Vega said.

Event Hire Network owner Zane Mohamed said the company’s 18 permanent staff had been relying on UIF Ters payments for months because all its events had been cancelled.

The company’s annual events in the city include the Splash Festival, Kirkwood Wildfees, Ebubeleni and the Summer Season launch.

“The big festivals which have been cancelled were our lifelines.

“Without them we’re unable to sustain ourselves and that has a ripple effect on the people we usually hire to work with us,” Mohamed said.

He said the company was also awaiting outstanding payment for pre-lockdown events.

He said the technical events industry had been neglected when the government set up funds for various industries.

“What we’re asking is for the government to take notice of us because we’re only allowed to operate on lockdown level 1 and we don’t know when that will be.

“Even when we eventually do get to level one, it will take us months to be able to generate profit, especially in Port Elizabeth,” he said.

The owner of events venue Brick and Mortar and events company Party Design, Morne de Lange, said the venue had cancelled more than 60 events scheduled for this year, affecting the salaries and families of at least 22 employees and freelancers.

Party Design’s large events, including the annual SPAR Women’s Race, ablutions for the Kirkwood Wildfees, the Wings and Wheels Festival and Afrikaburn Festival in Tankwa, had all been cancelled.

“If we talk conservatively, we’ve lost over R5m this year.

“We’ve had to return some deposits to people who’ve cancelled their bookings at Brick and Mortar while others have only changed dates,” De Lange said.

“We hope the government will consider revisiting restrictions and allow us to operate and generate some form of income.

“We could even rotate staff to earn an income if we’re allowed events like weddings for 50 people max,” he said.

National #LightSARed movement founder Sharif Baker  said one of its demands was that the government extend Covid-19 relief funding until artists were allowed to work again.

- HeraldLIVE